ARTBEAT

Cloar exhibit reveals ‘Road Less Traveled’

Carroll Cloar’s Two Strays was painted in 1986. The acrylic on panel work is part of the exhibit “Carroll Cloar: A Road Less Traveled” at Greg Thompson Fine Art.
Carroll Cloar’s Two Strays was painted in 1986. The acrylic on panel work is part of the exhibit “Carroll Cloar: A Road Less Traveled” at Greg Thompson Fine Art.

When Greg Thompson sees a Carroll Cloar painting, he feels like he’s back home again.

The Arkansas-born Cloar’s Delta-inspired paintings bring “a sense of home,” says the owner of Greg Thompson Fine Art.

Thompson’s gallery is hosting an exhibit of 23 Cloar works, a companion show to the just-opened Arkansas Arts Center retrospective.

“I drove through the Delta to pick up some of the paintings,” Thompson says. “I drove through Parkin, Marked Tree, Earle … those are my roots. My family is from Marked Tree. It’s Carroll Cloar land. When you drive from Little Rock to Memphis, especially on [U.S.] Highway 70, you can see that.

“It’s an America he wanted to come back to and paint because he knew it would soon be gone.”

In the 1950s, Cloar was represented by the same New York gallery (Edith Halpert) that represented Ben Shahn, Alfred Stieglitz, Jacob Lawrence, Arthur Dove and others. “His career was launched in New York, and he’s really been an important artist since,” Thompson says. In a two-year period, the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian and the Whitney Museum of American Art bought Cloar’s work.

Cloar is a part of the regionalist art movement that included Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton.

Among the works at the Thompson gallery is a skeletal outline drawing for one of his masterpieces, Children Pursued by Hostile Butterflies. Many of Cloar’s drawings are very detailed; this one is not. The painting is in the Arts Center’s Cloar exhibition.

Two Strays depicts two girls with their dolls standing near a sign that evokes religious billboards. “Watch for Signs: Are You Ready? Coming Soon,” the sign states. All that’s missing is the portrait of Jesus, which was on the painting’s original drawing, Thompson says.

Also memorable is the tender Charlie Mae as a Baby, a portrait of his close friend. Broken Church, in which a tree has crashed into a church, could be a commentary on the church’s presence in the culture of the Delta.

“Carroll Cloar: A Road Less Traveled” is an intimate look at Cloar’s work. While there are unquestioned masterpieces in the Arts Center show, viewers will enjoy this companion exhibit.

“Carroll Cloar: A Road Less Traveled,” through April 12, Greg Thompson Fine Art, 429 Main St., North Little Rock. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m.Tuesday-Friday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. Info: (501) 664-2787; gregthompsonfineart.com

A LIFE ON CANVAS

“Hope is the last thing to die” is a Russian proverb quoted by artist Layla Moss.

You wouldn’t have to know artist Moss’ story to realize hers has been a life of struggle.

It’s on the walls of Boswell Mourot Fine Art in the often intense, thoughtful autobiographical canvases of her exhibit “Growing Moss: New Works by Layla Moss.”

Moss, of Russian and Lebanese ancestry, now lives in Mountain Home. These canvases depict a difficult life woven through her experiences in Russia, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia before coming to the United States.

One of the most penetrating works is the skeletal/ flesh self-portrait Stripped of Everything: Starting Over ($1,800). On Bang Bang You Missed Again ($1,800), Moss depicts herself as a bird flying to freedom while gunmen below shoot at her.

In some, such as The Geisha ($1,800), there is undeniable beauty and heartbreaking subtlety. And Six Stages of Moss ($1,800) presents six self-portraits of the artist at various stages of her life. It’s a haunting work that is undeniably beautiful.

Hope and, clearly, faith play a big role in Moss’ life and survival - qualities that imbue her art. Those qualities especially revealed themselves to the viewer through the eyes of the woman whose story is told in these fascinating works.

“Growing Moss,” new works by Layla Moss, through March 8, Boswell Mourot Fine Art, 5815 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock. Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.Saturday. (501) 664-0030.

CEFALO’S TALE

Arkansas artist Stephen Cefalo will tell his Southern story at a live taping for the radio show Tales From the South Tin Roof Project on Tuesday at Starving Artist Cafe, 411 Main St., North Little Rock. Music will be provided by The Salty Dogs. Doors open at 5 p.m.; dinner is served from 5-6:30. The show starts at 7. Admission is $7.50 for the show, plus the cost of dinner and beverages. Tickets are available online at talesfromthesouth.com.

Cefalo’s program will be broadcast at 7 p.m. March 13 on KUAR-FM, 89.1.

E-mail: ewidner@arkansasonline.com

Style, Pages 45 on 03/02/2014

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