Jackson Free Press

Although many of us proudly cheer on some of our Mississippi artists, we continue to overlook those who pushed some of the creative boundaries we take for granted. Between May 29 and Aug. 30, the Mississippi Museum of Art exhibits the work of one such artist: George Wardlaw.

Born April 9, 1927, four miles west of Baldwyn, Miss., Wardlaw grew up on his family's cotton-and-soybean farm. In 1945, he volunteered for the U.S. Navy, completing his service two years later.

On his return, Wardlaw used his G.I. Bill benefits to pay his tuition at the Memphis Academy of Arts. In an artist's statement for the Mississippi Museum of Art, he tells the story of his painting instructor at the academy, Ben Bishop. Wardlaw recalls that the instructor said one of his paintings was "like a spiritual journey. ... 'Why don't you title it 'Spiritual Journey?'"

"I did, and I have been on a spiritual journey ever since," Wardlaw shares.

Having spent years learning the craft of silversmithing, he taught jewelry making at the University of Mississippi, where he met his mentor, Jack Tworkov, then an artist-in-residence, in 1952. People believe that Tworkov influenced Wardlaw's eventual conversion to Judaism. In 1956, Wardlaw joined the faculty at Louisiana State University. That same year, the State University of New York invited him to join its art faculty.

In New York, apple orchards surrounded Wardlaw's house, and he began obsessively researching the fruit.

"I was really into apples," Wardlaw says, "being handled, being bruised, being diseased—the kind of markings, colorations, shapes that appeared."

He began producing studies of the fruit on small canvases and in sculpture. He moved to further abstracting apples as subjects until the late '90s, when he began painting landscapes of Maine's coastline.

In his March 2008 exhibition at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., "Recent Paintings: Windows 1," Wardlaw's artist statement reads: "Windows are openings that frame the outside and inside world. The glass is a transparent curtain to the world stage, where it has become a setting for the real, the unreal and the surreal nature of my work."

Although he had roots in Abstract Expressionism, Wardlaw worked in movements as far-flung as Color Field painting, Pop Art and Minimalism.

"His art and his career itself is saturated with energy," says Julian Rankin, marketing director at the Mississippi Museum of Art.

"The energy to be making in so many mediums from jewelry to sculpture to painting, to be switching to all of these aesthetics and changing alongside all these different art movements, to be traveling, always be teaching and still painting—even now in his late 80s."

In conjunction with the museum's show, Fischer Galleries (736 S. President St.) will present "George Wardlaw: Recent Works" from May 28 and Aug. 30. See "George Wardlaw, A Life in Art" from May 29 and Aug. 16 at the Mississippi Museum of Art (380 S. Lamar St., 601-960-1515). It is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday between noon and 5 p.m. During museum hours, admission is free for members and children, and $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and $6 for students.

EVENT CHANGE: The end date of the "George Wardlaw, A Life in Art" exhibit at the Missisisippi Museum of Art is now Aug. 16.