Luminous Prints, Strong Bronze in Bumbeck Show

Author: Kate DeForest

Open since Jan. 15 and continuing until April 7, "David Bumbeck: Figures of the Imagination," is on display at the Middlebury College Museum of Art. The exhibit, focusing primarily on recent works, spans three decades of work, from the intaglio prints for which Bumbeck is most well known, to his most recent endeavors in bronze and mixed media.

Bumbeck, for whom the exhibit is a sort of farewell upon his retirement from the College this spring, began teaching studio art and printmaking at Middlebury in 1968, after completing his bachelors degree at the Rhode Island School of Design, and his master's of fine arts degree at Syracuse University. In the past he has also served as the director of the College's Christian A. Johnson Memorial Gallery from 1973 to 1985. His works have been included in public collections at the Brooklyn Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Everson Museum and the Library of Congress, as well as many other locations across the country. He has held over 10 one-man shows and has been included in over twice that many group exhibitions, proving him to be a prolific and notable contemporary artist.

"Figures of the Imagination" is the third show of Bumbeck's work at the College. The first was held in 1981, the second being, his show simply entitled "David Bumbeck: Prints" in 1989.

Unlike "Prints," the subject matter of "Figures of the Imagination" is overwhelmingly female, with very few exceptions. However, the highly scholastic visual references and quotes, as well as the fine attention to detail and collage-like composition characteristic of his earlier works remain very present in his recent prints. Most notably, perhaps, is his ability to translate the penchant for detail from medium to medium, as evidenced by his bronzes.

The prints, which make up about half the show, show a heightened sense of light and dark, whether it be the Mediterranean sunlight sweeping across the street of "Via Toscana," a 1976 combination of photo-etching, etching, aquatint and engraving, or the 1997 intaglio "Lineage," a richly composed, densely allusive print depicting many of the artist's historical influences, from classical works through modern, with a figure of his own distinctive style appearing at the forefront. "Lineage," like many of the most recent prints on display, features embossed designs and figures on parts of the parameter of the black and white image, figures that range from a female nude ("Lineage") to a dolphin and celestial themed figures ("Enchantment").

One might be tempted to describe Bumbeck's prints, his style and much of his subject matter in terms of whimsy: women, dolphins, suns and moons, a child running through a field of grass, a girl in a billowing dress with a bird perched delicately upon her left hand. However, the pejorative connotations that go along with the word contradict the masterful skill and careful composition that goes into making each print a meaningful piece of art on its own and in dialogue with the historical artistic tradition.

Bumbeck's figures seem to be radiating their own light as well as existing in harmony with the light of their setting; they are smooth and well-shaped, peopling a world created of Bumbeck's sensibility. The almost doll-like quality of his human figures contrasts with those he quotes and manipulates from other works, from classical to Victorian, and he is able to capture the texture of each, creating a sort of visual tactility. In his compositions he stretches the medium of print to include that of marble, wood, fabric and flesh, each minutely and adeptly rendered.

"Song" (2001-2002, unique bronze) transmuted the superb sense of motion many of the prints evoked, into statue. The girl's dress seems to be swung to the side by an unknown breeze, as she tilts her head only slightly to listen to the bird balanced upon her hand. She stands upon a circular bronze base, but could be standing on the very edge of the world, as isolated she seems in the moment captured with the visual eloquence of a determined artist.

Also in bronze are two rather voluptuous, strongly muscled, yet very feminine nudes. Both give the impression of being formed and placed with consummate precision in space; one balances a toe on a sphere, both have an excellent sense of weight and proportion.

Bumbeck's work, which includes explorations of some mixed media and artifact-based works, presents the viewer with a robust collection of art by an artist who clearly has come into his own voice in more than one medium. "Figures of Imagination" takes the imaginary, grounds it to the visual and channels that energy into specific and fantastic manifestations in two- and three-dimensions.