Review

A review of Patrick Duegaw's
The Builder, Removed: Scenes from the Painted Theatre Project

Wichita Art Museum
Wichita, Kansas
March 15 — April 26

by Rachel Epp Buller

Patrick Duegaw, "Amy with Butter Knife (or) Dreaming of Open Washers and Empty Dryers," mixed media on sheetrock, 36" x 32", 2006. Image: courtesy of Wichita Art Museum

When I heard that Patrick Duegaw had a show opening at the Wichita Art Museum, I assumed that his work would be relegated to the dimly lit basement space that the museum generally reserves for their temporary exhibitions. Since he is a Wichita artist, it seemed a coup in itself to have an exhibition at the museum. What a pleasant surprise, then, to discover that Duegaw had in fact been given half of the entire upper level, a spacious and well-lit space, for The Builder, Removed: Scenes from the Painted Theatre Project.

Patrick Duegaw, installation view of "Wichita Tools," mixed media on Sheetrock, 18" x 18" each (32), 2007. Image: Courtesy of the artist

Patrick Duegaw, detail of half of diptych, "Two Rooms With Insufficient Light (or) Portraits of Kent and Mel," mixed media on Sheetrock, 60" x 114", 2007. Image: Courtesy of the artist

A monumental undertaking that includes nearly 100 paintings, The Builder, Removed variously incorporates references to stage construction, storytelling, and theatrical characters. Viewed as a whole, the paintings speak to Duegaw’s experience of the people involved with Fisch Haus Studios, a non-profit artist cooperative in Wichita’s Commerce Street gallery district that Duegaw helped to found in 1990.

Patrick Duegaw, "Heroine (or) Rocket Ship," mixed media on Sheetrock, 91" x 49", 2005. Image: Courtesy of the artist

Yet they are not documentary paintings. Rather, Duegaw uses his experiences and relationships as a starting point, for it becomes immediately apparent to the viewer that Duegaw has developed an elaborate (fictional? autobiographical? fictively autobiographical?) narrative that runs throughout the works. Many of the paintings are populated by the characters in this narrative, creations based on actual friends and relations. His sister becomes “the seductress of south Wichita” in Amy with Butter Knife (or) Dreaming of Open Washers and Empty Dryers. His wife, artist Elizabeth Stevenson, figures in several of the works, including Heroine (or) Rocket Ship.

Patrick Duegaw, "The Builder, Removed," mixed media on Sheetrock, 23.5" x 16", 2008. Image: Courtesy of the artist

Perhaps the most important character running throughout the narrative, though one not often pictured, is Duegaw himself. Patrick Duegaw is “the builder,” constructing, disassembling, and reassembling his works. These are not paintings on canvas; they are paintings produced on the salvaged materials of sheetrock and wood, fastened together with industrial materials, the tools of the builder’s trade. In addition to the many works featuring the characters of the narrative, Duegaw also includes in the exhibition the Wichita Tool series, a grouping of smaller paintings, each of which features a tool (a rubber mallet, a crowbar, a caulking gun) in a singular, almost iconic, way.

Patrick Duegaw, "Two Rooms With Insufficient Light (or) Portraits of Kent and Mel," mixed media on Sheetrock, 60" x 114", 2007. Image: Courtesy of the artist

Part of Duegaw’s “building” component involves a set of hidden images, shapes to be discovered within the constructs of the larger paintings. Duegaw fragments then reassembles scraps of sheetrock in sophisticated patterns so that, within the larger paintings, one might detect the camouflaged outline of an enormous fish, or, in the case of the painting of his sister, a monumental butter knife.

Patrick Duegaw, "Hit Man (or) Jurgen With Absent Microphone," mixed media on Sheetrock, 84" x 54", 2009. Image: Courtesy of the artist

Some of the strongest elements of the exhibition are the poetic narratives that Duegaw juxtaposes with certain paintings. I found this a surprising strength, given that I am forever encouraging my art students to convey their ideas through images rather than relying on the use of text within their paintings, prints, or drawings. Yet for Duegaw’s work, the combination seems entirely appropriate. His paintings stand alone, as do his poems. Alongside each other, however, each highlights the other and heightens the viewer’s theatrical experience, perhaps a reference to the both verbal and visual elements of an actual stage production.