Aspen Peak - Niche Media - Aspen living at its peak
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/417540
photography by Joel SamuelSon (entrance); JohnS, JaSper (b. 1930) © Vaga, ny; albright-Knox art gallery i art reSource, ny (numbers in color) from top: Numbers in Color, Jasper Johns, 1958–59; an Andy Warhol portrait of the late John Powers hangs in the entrance of the Powers Art Center. etching, and lithography. Often, he made counterparts to his art pieces, including the distinctive paintings of maps and f lags that made him famous early on. His resulting limited-edition works-on-paper collection, which includes images and objects from popular culture and classical iconography, is considered as important as his canvas pieces and expresses his artistic philosophy. Of the 300 works on paper in the Powers Art Center's permanent collection, about 100 will hang at a time, and exhibits will change annually. All are laid out chronologi- cally throughout five galleries: This year's exhibit begins with Coathanger I, a lithograph dated 1960, and ends with Map from 2012. While the primary mission of the Center, which also features a library with an extensive collection of Pop Art books, and ceramic works by Takashi Nakazato, was to share Powers's collection of Jasper Johns works, it's proving to have a broader effect. "It's stirred up an interest in art again," says English. "People have been telling their friends, 'Oh, you must go.' Along with Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, the Wyly Community Art Center in Basalt, and the Clay Center in Carbondale, it's drawing people down- valley. And it's a nice complement to the new Aspen Art Museum and the galleries in Aspen. It's really been a gift." That sentiment is shared by Albert Sanford, owner of Galerie Maximillian in Aspen. "Aspen is a cultural mecca in the mountains, with music and dance and sports," he says. "We're consistently putting ourselves out there as a hub of for ward thinking in art as well. R ight now there's an unprecedented appreciation of the value of contemporary art. The Powers may not be housing art that is contempo- rary now, but it was considered contemporary in its time. It's all a matter of perspective." "There's a real punctuation of what travelers to Aspen are interested in now," adds local artist Christopher H. Martin, who owns Christopher Martin Gallery. "You won't find many galleries here specializing in Western art anymore. We're on the forefront of embracing contemporary art, and the new art museum has put a new face on that." Kiki Jai Raj of Aspen's Baldwin Gallery, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary this Christmas, concurs: "We are very happy to see the presence of art expanding in Aspen. More art is more art for everyone." 13110 Hwy. 82, Carbondale, 970-963-4445; powersartcenter.org AP "jasper johns' art makes people talk and have full conversations about the world around them." —john powers 88 aspenpeak-magazine.com culture Art at Altitude