Topic: College of Fine Arts
February 9, 2007
<b>David Owsley, the son of Lucy Ball Owsley and the grandson of Frank C. Ball, a member of the family who helped create Ball State in 1918, has given an oil painting valued at $2 million to the university~~~s Museum of Art.</b>
The Ball State University Museum of Art has received a painting valued at $2 million from a longtime benefactor.
The painting, "Right Bird Left," is one of two recently presented to the museum by art collector David T. Owsley, the son of Lucy Ball Owsley and the grandson of Frank C. Ball, a member of the family who helped create Ball State in 1918. The painting was given by Owsley in memory of his mother and is now on display on the museum's second floor.
Painted in 1965 by Lee Krasner, "Right Bird Left" is a large, fully developed composition measuring nearly 6 feet by 11 feet, and an important representation of Krasner's post-1956 work, said Peter Blume, museum director.
The painting illustrates Krasner's commitment to "all over" painting and the energy that her works expressed in the mid 1960s. The canvas is filled with strokes, shapes and colors that demand equal attention throughout. Krasner's works, which were often vibrant and engaging, sought to eradicate all references to the visual world, he said.
"She was noted as saying that she sought to remove these references until, 'there was no image at all,'" said Blume, who added that the newly acquired painting is comparable to the Krasner's 1960 painting "Celebration," acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art in 2003.
Owsley's wide expertise is represented by the more than 2,500 diverse works he and his family have given or loaned to the Ball State Museum of Art collection. Owsley has furnished the museum with collections of art representing the decorative arts and sculpture from Ancient China, India and Southeast Asia. In 1978, the Owsley Gallery of Ethnographic Art was dedicated to recognize his gifts.
"Owsley has brought credit to Ball Sate through his contributions to the art world, higher education and the pursuit of diversity, all the while enriching the cultural life of the Muncie community and Indiana," Blume said.
Owsley also presented Alfred Leslie's 1959 painting "Pythoness" as a gift to the museum. This painting is also an example of abstract expressionism and a rarity since much of Alfred Leslie's early work was destroyed by a fire.
Hanging together in the museum with the two new paintings is another recently acquired painting, Norman Bluhm's "Chandelle." It was donated by the artist's family in 2005. The three paintings form a rich group from the most important American art movement of the 20th century, Blume said.
More information about Ball State's Museum of Art may be found at www.bsu.edu/artmuseum.
By Marc Ransford, Senior Communications Strategist