Ann Janss Cliff Westermann, 1976, color photograph, 16 x 20 in., collection of Ann JanssFeaturing over 70 drawings, prints, sculptures, illustrated letters, and paintings, this exhibition provides an overview of more than 20 years in the career of artist H. C. Westermann. Combining a keen sense of irony and a passionate devotion to craftsmanship, Horace Clifford Westermann (1922-1981) created a body of work that is unique in twentieth-century American art. He used wood, metal, paint, and countless other materials to make works that are symbolic, autobiographical, and often outrageously funny. Drawn extensively from the collections of Ann Janss and James Corcoran, "Sincerely, Cliff": H. C. Westermann at the Madison Art Center documents important themes in the artist's work as well as his lively correspondence with friends.
Although he was an important inspiration for artists such as Bruce Nauman and William T. Wiley and movements like the Chicago Imagists and the West Coast Funk artists, Westermann remained steadfastly outside the mainstream. None of the labels that have been variously applied to his art--surreal, Pop, folk--fit. Westermann was generally unconcerned with the interest in pure abstraction that dominated international art after the Second World War. Instead, he drew on personal and public events as the raw material for his distinctive brand of representational art.
Part vaudeville entertainer and part sardonic social critic, Westermann created a world filled with mystery, melodrama, and madness. Working in a freewheeling yet always painstakingly crafted style, Westermann deftly employed a dazzling variety of materials. He was a virtuoso woodworker, a skilled draftsman, and an accomplished printmaker. Whether a fragmentary tale of cartoonish absurdity or an enigmatic symbol animated by a punning title, all of Westermann's work reflects his salty sense of humor and occasionally cranky outlook. Death, love, courage, and dismay at the current state of affairs are perennial themes in his work.
Westermann's subjects are closely related to his life experiences. By the age of thirty, when he was a student at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the artist was a veteran of the Second World War and the Korean War and had toured Asia with the U.S.O. as part of a two-man acrobatic team. Searing wartime memories inspired much of his imagery, including the motif of the Death Ship. During World War II, Westermann spent three years in the Pacific as an antiaircraft gunner on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Enterprise. During that time, he witnessed numerous kamikaze attacks, once managing to hit and deflect an airplane headed directly toward the center of his ship. Haunted by the experience of seeing a nearby ship reduced to a smoldering hull by such a suicide attack, the artist drew and sculpted hundreds of wrecked and drifting hulks. Westermann's work also reflects his enormous love for life. Documenting such things as his travels with his wife Joanna, and his lifelong practice of gymnastics, Westermann's eccentric imagery includes strong men, sun-baked deserts, Amazon women, and tropical jungles.
Language, too, was an important tool for Westermann. He peppered his two- and three-dimensional work with text as well as with his personal symbol, the anchor. Letter writing was another important outlet for his creativity. Each morning, before entering the studio, Westermann would write illustrated letters to friends and acquaintances. Full of ideas, excitement, and affection, these letters present an intimate record of the artist's world view.
Funding for "Sincerely, Cliff": H. C. Westermann at the Madison Art Center has been provided by the Exhibition Initiative Fund; the Madison Art Center's 1996-1997 Sustaining Benefactors; and a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin. Promotional support provided by WORT 89.9 FM Community Radio.