FRANK V. DUDLEY: SHADOWS
AND SUNLIT SILENCE
While savoring the sound of the title in
his mind,
the
viewer sees the dunes in Dudley's painting
standing beside the unseen
lake, impressing
with their mass but also threatening to disappear
at
any moment like a ghost composed
of a material both substantial and
insubstantial.
Shadows and Sunlit
Silence, an undated oil painting by Frank V. Dudley
(1868-1957), is one of the Brauer Museum of Art's most beloved
paintings. A 1960 gift of The Friends of Our Native Landscape in
memory of Frank V. Dudley, this sensitive representation of the Indiana
dunes located just north of Valparaiso and the Brauer Museum reminds
viewers of the lovely landscape features that can be seen in this
area. Dudley's selection of lavender shadows for his subject
matter allows viewers to see the painting abstractly; at the same time,
however, the piece reflects the Impressionist style of representation
for which he is known.
Born in Wisconsin and a long-time Chicago resident,
Dudley discovered during his adult travels the magical landscape of the
Indiana dunes, a place that inspired him to visit and paint for the
rest of his career, and that led him to work to have this landscape
preserved through state and national parks. His dunes paintings
capture in subtle pastel tones the quiet grandeur that one often feels
in this setting. Lake Michigan, stretching into the distance of
so many Dudley pieces, looks and feels like a vast ocean, while the
various grasses and trees set in the expanses of sand proclaim their
existence in realms of light and color.
The title Shadows
and Sunlit Silence offers an example of alliteration that
enhances an appreciation for the picture. The "sh" and "s" sounds
summon up images within one's imagination of shifting sands and
rustling grasses. Complete and absolute silence is difficult to
find in nature due to the myriad activities taking place within this
arena; one must therefore think of silence as paradoxically taking on
various characters in various contexts or environments. Staring
at the dunes in the summer sunlight, one may concentrate on the silence
to isolate and characterize the delicate sounds that weave together as
a texture or pattern or that occasionally puncture the continuity of
such a pattern. So often the rushing lake currents, the sand
particles shifting in the breeze, the leaves of trees and grasses all
blend together into something not quite a sound, not quite a
feeling. This particular silence is the
reassuring voice of a place that comforts with the enormity of its
workings, a voice that lies below one's awareness like a continuous
whisper. While savoring the sound of the title in his mind, the
viewer sees the dunes in Dudley's painting standing beside the unseen
lake, impressing with their mass but also threatening to disappear at
any moment like a ghost composed of a material both substantial and
insubstantial. The dunes sand Dudley offers the viewer in this
picture is the sand seen in an hourglass. That is, the mound at
the bottom of the hourglass presents stability and weight, but a flip
of the hourglass reminds one of the fine particles that compose the
mound and that are always and forever moving, taking new shapes
regardless of humans that wish to stay their
movement and thus gain control over the relentless progress of
time. The rushing silence of the dunes rhymes with the sound of
flowing blood occasionally heard ever so quietly in one's ears, both
natural currents that serve simultaneously as indicators of stability
and constant change.
In the foreground of Dudley's painting are gestural
marks that stand for blades of grass, twigs, perhaps small shadows
produced by footsteps or the wind. Dudley painted many of his
dunes landscapes on the beach before the scene or feature itself and
therefore was frequently immersed in the environment that fascinated
him. His casually or spontaneously applied marks are in keeping
with the modernist sensibility that characterized most twentieth
century art, but the abstract beauty of the artistic gesture is perhaps
only part of these marks' appeal. Because he responded so
strongly to the dunes and quickly felt an almost spiritual attachment
to the place, his mark-making methods in certain areas may have been a
result of imitations of natural processes. In other words, like the
wind can reach down, grab a twig, and deposit it several feet away, so
too could Dudley as an all-powerful creator touch his brush upon the
canvas and move his arm quickly, thus placing a mark upon the beige
ground where one could not previously be found. While Dudley as a
skilled artist was in careful control of his composition at all times,
one could delight in thinking that maybe he occasionally felt as if he
were not only transcribing what lay before him but also being driven by
or mimicking through the creative process the forces of nature that
sculpted the wonders on whatever scale before his eyes.
The purples in Dudley's shadows are not colors one
would expect to see in the sands. Likewise, visitors to the dunes
do not typically frame their views of the landscape in such a square
format or abstracted and edited fashion. The colors, pictorial
configuration in terms of outer and inner aspects, and representational
approach are all decisions on the artist's part; consequently, in
appreciating this work of art viewers are wise to consider all elements
as being purposeful and having some bearing on the content of the
picture. When one thinks about Dudley's love for the dunes
landscape as well as his successful efforts
to have this environment preserved for future generations, he cannot
help but think that each painting was an invitation, an urge for the
viewer to see. Certainly, the dunes provided Dudley with ample
opportunities for abstraction, for finding arrangements that could be
interesting on a two-dimensional surface within a frame. However,
Dudley's vignettes, his carefully chosen extractions from the larger
world seem more to be prompts to awaken the viewer. Imagine
seeing Dudley's purple shadows and then discovering in the dunes that
yes, the shadows do contain such colors or at least display more
complexity than one ever realized. His art invites one to
participate in an adventure in seeing (and hearing and feeling) in the
context of a landscape that both embodies time and exists outside of it.
A retrospective exhibition of Dudley's work will be
on display at the Brauer Museum from August 15 to November 30 of
2006. This major show of many of Dudley's finest creations (which
will include Shadows and Sunlit
Silence) will be accompanied by a catalogue published by
University of Illinois Press and intended to be the definitive
publication on the artist. Essays by esteemed scholars James
Dabbert, William Gerdts, Wendy Greenhouse, and J. Ronald and Joan Engel
will illuminate the life and legacy of this legendary figure in
American art history.
© by Gregg Hertzlieb
