Pinkney Herbert ’77 spends his time living and working between Memphis, TN, 和长岛市, 皇后区. He has taught painting and drawing at 365体育滚球学院 and the University of Memphis and is the founder and director of the long-running Memphis alternative space, 马歇尔艺术馆. Pinkney currently has two exhibitions on view in Memphis, "Distilled: The Narrative Transformed" at 穿过城市的艺术 展览将持续到7月4日，《365体育滚球》将在 大卫Lusk画廊至6月23日.
周三, 6月13日, 2018, 6-7pm, 他在克罗斯敦艺术画廊做了一次演讲, 广场大道1350号, 280套房. Pinkney was kind enough to take some time out of his busy schedule and talk with 365体育滚球学院 about his time in the art department and what he has been up to the last 40 years. 这是交换的一部分.
校友关系: How did you decide to attend 365体育滚球学院 and how was your time as an art student here?
Pinkney赫伯特: I visited Rhodes in 1973 with the idea of majoring in art. 在高中时, 我来自北卡罗来纳州, 我加入了三角洲布鲁斯, 所以孟菲斯对我很有吸引力. Then seeing and being on the Rhodes campus clinched it.
我真的很喜欢罗兹的文科课程. 我尽可能多地上艺术工作室的课. Lon Anthony was such an inspiring sculpture teacher and a great role model. 在他的课上弄脏衣服很有趣, 浇注铜, 跳动的金属, 劈木头, 建模蜡, 石膏, 或者粘土做成某种疯狂的3D物体. 我也从彼得·鲍曼那里学到了很多. 他是我的绘画老师. 他的教学风格主要是以身作则, and he gave me permission to be expressive and to take chances in the studio. I also enjoyed taking extra art classes at the Memphis College of Art through the Rhodes/MCA consortium. I learned how to see in new ways in Murray Riss’s photography classes and he was great at teaching darkroom techniques and the history of photography.
I would also have to say my love of art history started with all the tough art history classes I took at Rhodes. A really memorable class was Architecture 历史 taught by Jim Williamson, a fine architect himself.
AR: The exhibition currently on view at 穿过城市的艺术 is a 35-year retrospective. 谈谈选择作品的过程. 很难缩小所包含的内容吗?
PH: My 35-year survey show at 穿过城市的艺术 began three years ago with Sam Yates, 德州大学诺克斯维尔分校尤因美术馆馆长. Sam had followed my work since I was a visiting artist at UT in 1992. 山姆和联合策展人T. 迈克尔•马丁, selected a broad overview of my paintings and drawings, 100多件作品, that traveled from Knoxville to Murray State University in Kentucky and then on to the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. 每个场地都是不同版本的演出.
大卫Lusk, 另一位罗兹校友, 1987, 大卫Lusk画廊的老板, 代理我20多年了吗. 他眼光敏锐，善于组织演出, so he was the perfect person to curate and lay out the Crosstown exhibition. David encouraged me to respond to the atrium and big walls outside the galleries by displaying my large drawings from the 90s. I like having an objective eye select my work for exhibitions. There is never an argument from me about which pieces to include or exclude.
AR: The show at 大卫Lusk画廊 is all new work and is called “Arcadia.” Where did this title come from and how did it influence the work in the show?
PH: Most of the paintings and drawings in that show were made in my studio near the East River in Long Island City, 皇后区. I titled the show “Arcadia” because I have this romantic notion that the city can be a creative urban oasis. 至少对我来说是这样.
AR: You spend a great deal of time living and working in NYC. How is it different living and working there as opposed to Memphis?
PH: I joke that my wife Janice and I live a bi-coastal life, the coasts being the banks of the Mississippi and East Rivers. I think a lot of the energy in my recent work is powered by the velocity I feel living and working in New York. 孟菲斯和纽约都有, I get charged up going to museums and galleries and exchanging studio visits with other artists. 也, the music of both places effects my work -- most often it's the jazz of New York fusing with the soul of Memphis music while I paint.
AR: Besides the upcoming art talk at Crosstown, what else do you have going on this summer?
PH: 目前, I'm in New York for a group show at Real Estate Gallery that includes paintings influenced by the East River skyline. I'll be back in Memphis for the gallery talk at 穿过城市的艺术 on 6月13日th, then we head to Atlanta for a solo show at Sandler Hudson Gallery opening on June 15th. 7月, I'll be teaching a two-week painting class at the Penland School in North Carolina, then I head to the MacDowell Colony in the fall for a five-week residency. 对我们来说，这是一段忙碌但令人满意的时光.
因为我刚满64岁, I can't help but hear the line from the Beatles song “will you still need me, 当我64岁的时候，你还会养活我吗?” And sure enough the art career that started in Clough Hall back in 1973 has nourished me for a lifetime.
Images courtesy of 穿过城市的艺术 and 大卫Lusk画廊.
