Gene Owens: Modern Vision
During the mid-twentieth century in the North Texas area there were just a handful of artists exploring modernist approaches to making sculpture. One of those pioneers was Gene Owens. Born in Birdville, Texas outside of Fort Worth in 1931, Owens received a B.A. from Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth (1955) and an M.F.A. from the University of Georgia, Athens (1958). Owens returned to Texas to teach, but in 1960 he gave up teaching and devoted himself to making sculpture.
As a student and following his return to Texas, Owens worked with Charles T. Williams, one of the leading sculptors in mid-century Texas working in a modern manner. With few fellow artists to draw from for technical information as well as an absence of art foundries, Owens and Williams began to experiment with various techniques for creating and finishing bronzes. For Owens, these searches and experiments resulted in some of the most unique and innovative bronze sculptures seen in Texas thus far. However, due to an allergic reaction during the polishing process, Owens abandoned bronze and began experimenting with porcelain. Traditionally identified with the decorative arts, porcelain was both a challenge and natural medium for Owens. The smooth, simple, unadorned forms were not only the product of numerous and meticulous "piece" molds required of each object, but a personal exhaustive search for the perfect porcelain formulas and finishes as well. Through natural progression-and due to size limitations of the porcelain material-Owens continued his work in non-traditional stoneware sculpture.
In the 1960s Owens met and became an assistant to the internationally-known sculptor, Isamu Noguchi. Traveling back and forth from Texas to New York for a period of six years, Owens aided Noguchi on many major projects. This experience allowed rare insight for a young artist from a fledgling art community. As Noguchi’s assistant, Owens was not only influenced by one of the major sculptors of the twentieth-century, he also had the opportunity to meet many of the nation’s leading artists of the time. These included Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning and other Abstract Expressionists as well as American Pop artists Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg.
If any Texas artist merits the description of "living legend" it would be Gene Owens. The Old Jail Art Center will present aspects of Owens' oeuvre in a unique installation-bringing new insights into the work of this versatile and under-appreciated artist.