We are a celebration of the human spirit through the arts.
(PRWEB) September 12, 2005
On Sunday, October 9, an exhibition of 100 works by Robert W. Jensen will fill the galleries of Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton, California. While acrylic on canvas paintings will dominate, Jensen, who enjoys working in many media, will include a number of drawings, watercolors and original graphics, i.e. serigraphs, etchings, engravings and giclées, as well as some other experimental digital processes.
The exhibition, which is actually two separate themed exhibits, will remain at Muckenthaler until January 5, 2006. The two themes are JensenÂs interpretations of sports, titled Have You Come to Play? and his reminiscences of world travel, Collected Memories.
On that same date, Sunday, October 9, a special event will take place at Muckenthaler  the annual USC Orange County Football Rally, which this year celebrates the 125th anniversary of the University of Southern California. JensenÂs sports exhibition includes many of his paintings of the USC Trojan Marching Band, including one in which they are performing in front of the Muckenthaler from last yearÂs rally. Dr. Arthur C. Bartner, musical director of the Trojan Marching Band for more than thirty years, has characterized Jensen as "the official unofficial painter of the band." JensenÂs paintings provided many of the illustrations in a book celebrating BartnerÂs 25th anniversary with the band.
Another book filled with JensenÂs works on sports, titled The Young Athlete will be featured in the exhibition. One of those paintings titled The Diamond Belt Weigh-In which is now in the collection of the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio, will be represented at Muckenthaler as a giclée image. International columnist and radio personality Bonnie Churchill, provided anecdotal celebrity material for that book and will be included in the MuckenthalerÂs lecture program accompanying the exhibit.
Sport as Symbol  Images of the Athlete in Art, Literature and Song written by Mari Womack, a research scholar at the UCLA Center for the Study of Women, chose a number of JensenÂs sports images to use as illustrations in her book along with those by Renoir, Curry, Archipenko, Goya, Stubbs, and many others from the worldÂs finest museums.
Churchill authored the text for another of JensenÂs books on his travels in the PeopleÂs Republic of China, titled The Waking Dragon Beckons. Paintings and drawings from that earlier publication were featured in a touring exhibit that concluded at the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena. Some of those works are included in the Muckenthaler exhibit, including one very large painting (75Â X 89Â) titled Walking the Great Wall.
Other works in the Collected Memories travel section of the exhibition will include tulip fields in The Netherlands; the gardens of the Pavlovsk Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia; the roses of LondonÂs Hyde Park; the Luxembourg Gardens of Paris; scenes from Jerusalem and the desert of Israel; canal boats in Berlin; St. PeterÂs Cathedral; the Prado in Madrid; Switzerland; Singapore; a Memorial Day Parade in Chicago; the gardens of the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens in San Marino; and numerous southern California scenes.
The Huntington Library commissioned Jensen to reproduce a number of his paintings of their gardens for a series of note papers that were sold in their gift/book shop. Most recently, Jensen has hung six paintings in the Nixon Library and Birthplace, all renderings of their grounds, which will be available as note papers in their gift shop soon. The Muckenthaler gift shop will offer a number of note paper reproductions from this exhibition. The note papers are well know in charity circles since Jensen has donated them to Sonance, Los Angeles Beautiful Foundation, the Footlighters, the Los Angeles Philanthropic Foundation, the National Arts Association, and St. Jude ChildrenÂs Research Hospital in Memphis.
One of JensenÂs more recent awards was from the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge which selected him to receive their highest national special events award singling out his patriotic art as the reason for the juryÂs choice. Two of the many paintings cited in the award are in the Muckenthaler exhibition  July 4th celebrations in Catalina and in Pacific Palisades.
Jensen, has often said, "If there are themes to my paintings, it is simply the natural beauty around me, including the people who inhabit that beauty. IÂve been accused of being a painter of Âhappy scenes. I confess to seeing the positive side of things." That seems a perfect fit to the motto of the Muckenthaler which is: "We are a celebration of the human spirit through the arts."
The Muckenthaler Cultural Center is open from noon to four p.m. on Wednesdays through Sundays. The special USC event on October 9 admission charge is $25 for adults; $15 for children from age 8 to 17; and children under 7 are admitted free. The October 9 ticket prices include all activities, lunch and beverage and free parking. When regular hours begin on Wednesday, Octobr 12, admission will be free for the duration of the exhibition.
The web site, TheDiscriminatingCollector.com, provides additional works and more details about Jensen, as well as a pdf of the complete media kit for this exhibition. The pdf provides color images of JensenÂs art work which are linked to downloadable high resolution images for printing. For more information about the Muckenthaler Cultural Center, please visit Muckenthaler.org.
Media Contacts:
Keith H. Walker
310-273-8696 or 310-278-7372
Jensen & Walker, Inc. Public Relations
8802 Ashcroft Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90048
or
Phyllis Melendez
714-738-6340 or fax 714-738-6366
Muckenthaler Cultural Center
1201 West Malvern Avenue
Fullerton, CA 92833
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