The Indiana State Museum added two new paintings to its fine arts collection at the close of the 2005 Hoosier Salon. Barnyard Birds by Jeffrey Klinker and Trees in Shadows by Jerry Points were purchased by the museum with Indiana State Museum Foundation funds. Both paintings were chosen for their method, style and complement of the museum’s collection.
“The narrative subject and painterly method of Barnyard Birds will fit easily into Indiana painting exhibitions,” said Rachel Perry, Curator of Fine Arts. “It is important to include today’s established artists in the fine arts collection, which primarily includes artists who worked at the turn of the last century.”
Klinker is one such painter, an artist from Lafayette well known for his plein air, or painted on location, works. His work can be found in private collections as well as at Ivy Tech State College and Eli Lilly and Company. He is one of ten artists selected for the Painting Indiana: The Changing Face of Agriculture project, a collaborative effort between the Indiana Plein Air Painters Association and The Agricultural Center to interpret Indiana’s agri-business through art.
His painting Barnyard Birds depicts two roosters, one looming over the other in a threatening manner, which was painted in a loose impressionistic style and backlit. Points' painting Trees in Shadows, however, features more of a modern treatment of its subject, a landscape of three trees casting shadows on the grass.
“The painting style in Trees in Shadows is a natural progression from the early Indiana plein air artists who dominate the Indiana State Museum art collection,” Perry said. “The simplified and well-defined color masses in Trees in Shadows reflect the artist’s printmaking background. His method of painting complementary colors next to each other creates a fresh and lively landscape.”
Points currently teaches at the Indianapolis Art Center and works in his studio at the Stutz Building. In the past, he taught printmaking at his alma mater, the University of Evansville, served as the art director at Eli Lilly and Company and as creative director at Outside Source Design. His work can be found in many collections and museums, including the Swope Art Museum, the Evansville Museum of Art and Science and the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
Both of these paintings blend into the Indiana State Museum’s fine art collection, filling gaps in the history of painting in Indiana. They show that the Hoosier fine arts aren’t just a thing of the past, but an ongoing expression of the diversity and beauty this state has to offer.