by R. Peter Mooz, Ph.D. Critic-at-Large

E. ANN STOKES: A RETROSPECTIVE
The Lessons of Life Long Learning

It is wonderful to have Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian, Hoffman, Boziotes and Albers all in one room. In E Ann Stokes' recent show at the Portsmouth Museums Art Center, that's exactly what you had . But they did not appear as slavish copies rather as well synthesized works that integrated some of the visual solutions of her contemporaries to create a style of her own.

E Ann is an example of her generation who managed to have it all. Wife, Mother, Hostess, Careerwoman, and one who created art of lasting importance. Let's examine why this last element is true.

Curators are often leery of what is sometimes called "local art". Not that they don't admire the local artist, not that they don't like the works, it's just that their art often presents a dilemma. Local work falls in many categories. Some work can't even be categorized, but let us discuss a few of the major types:

1) The cliche that sells. Many artists are in the position of needing to live on the proceeds of their art. They have great talent and come upon a motif or way of designing that strikes a cord with the general public - and it sells. They are stuck because now the creative part of their work succumbs to the facile production of their staple. Go to any art festival. There is the elegant leaf painter. There is the elongated figure painter. There is the heightened color on the wicker chair painter. Everybody wants to be P. Buckley Moss!

2) The solution that lasts for ever. After a while good artists arrive at a visual statement on canvas that very much pleases them.. It is the synthesis that solves the various formal and intellectual problems that an artist has decided to or been made to confront. Once found, this synthesis appears repeatedly in green, red , large, tiny. It is beguiling but doesn't go anywhere.

3) The art politician. Some artists are gifted people persons; some have charisma among the other artists, local collectors or both. Shows come their way; people buy their art. The art is often good, well composed, beautifully colored, etc. or it can be extravagantly wild, even so obscure you don't dare ask what it is. There is nothing bad about this. It is just that the niche that acceptance carves out is too comfortable to vacate.

4) Finally, the flavor of the month. Artists are much encouraged by acceptance. Like all of us they like to win approval of their ideas. The surest act of approval is being selected for a juried show or indeed winning best in show. The result is the artists feels his ideas are confirmed and should be expressed again in future works.
Our problem here is that all too often the "best in show" is that painting which seems better than all the others competing against it at that particular time. The best in show should always be judged against universal standards of excellence, not the relative standards set by the other entries.

The Director of a major museum that held an annual art exhibit for many decades moaned to me that his store rooms were filled with the paintings that had gotten the annual purchase prize. He likened it to racks full of dresses. The dress that looked so smashing one year twenty years ago looked to him so awful now.

What are these four examples trying to say? One can't produce good or perhaps great art unless one grows. New challenges must be embraced and integrated into our work, new techniques must be explored, new ideas must be constantly confronted and expressed.

That is why E Ann's exhibition was so important. You could see her grow in every picture in the show. One starts with a somewhat derivative Picassoid madonna to Impressionist street scenes to Matisse palms to New York School abstraction.

None of this is slavish, but more importantly it shows the constant growth as E Ann devours the visual ideas she finds in the world around her. E Ann , the epitome of the genteel lady of Virginia, has the searching and tenacious mind of an international artist and teacher. Why one wonders does E Ann's work go beyond most? She answered this herself, " I let myself forget. I let my subconscious take over. It's always better." What she is saying is she lets herself grow.

Artists tell us many things about life, about problems and world issues. That is why they are so important and why we should listen to them. E Ann is telling us not to be afraid of growing. We need to try new things and not be afraid some of them will fail. If we always stay in our niche, the greatness we have within us will be stifled by that small space in the wall.

Keep on growing E Ann.

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