Oceanscape

Title: Oceanscape
LC Subject: Painting Scene painters Mural painting and decoration Ships Ship handling Masts and rigging Seas Ocean Ocean waves painting (image-making) paintings (visual works) oil paintings (visual works)
Creator: Pander, Henk, 1937-
Description: (Detail) A realistic scene from the deck of a ship at sea amongst rough water. The crew of the ship is busy at work with the rigging under a colorful nighttime sky. OSU Mural The Oregon Arts Commission has ten Regional Arts Councils that provide delivery of art services and information. The Council for this location is: Linn-Benton Arts. You may view their website at: http://www.artcentric.org/
View: water detail 2
Location: Memorial Union >> Benton County >> Oregon >> United States Benton County >> Oregon >> United States
Street Address: 2501 S. W. Jefferson Way, Corvallis Oregon
Award Date: 1985
Identifier: 1983_osu_mem-union_01_a03
Accession Number: 1983_osu_mem-union_01_a03
Rights: In Copyright
Dc Rights Holder: Pander, Henk
Type: Image
Format: image/tiff
Measurements: two panels; each 22 ft x 16 ft
Material: Painting; Mural The paintings are oil on Belgian linen, 22' x 16'. They are glued onto the arched panels in the Memorial Union. Both pieces took about eight months to complete, from November, 1984, to June, 1985. First one was painted from the top to the bottom with an underpainting, then the other, then back to the first, working back and forth until they were both complete. They were placed in the building according to their subject matter and the orientation of the Memorial Union in space. Upon entering the building the west wall is to the right, the east wall is to the left. The painting on the east wall, which is a European landscape, was placed on that wall partly because Europe lies east of us geographically. (excerpt taken from Pander's artist statement, 1983)
Set: Oregon Percent for Art
Primary Set: Oregon Percent for Art
Relation: 1983 Oregon State University Memorial Union Mural Project 1983_osu_mem-union
Art Series: Memorial Union Murals
Has Version: slide; color
Institution: Oregon Arts Commission University of Oregon
Note: To view a map of the artwork location in context to Oregon State University, see http://oregonstate.edu/cw_tools/campusmap/?BN=Memorial+Union Union lobby
Color Space: RGB
Biographical Information: THE OCEANSCAPE addresses itself to the the spirit of the University. It portrays students and faculty working together on a scientific project requiring intense collaboration and cooperation. In searching for a subject within the University that could represent the University as a whole and also give a sense of collaboration, I decided to sail with the M.S. Wecoma, which is a contained environment in a much larger environment. The mystery and wilderness of the ocean allowed great opportunity for a powerful composition. In such a setting the students and instructors would have to work together because of the very nature of the setting, which was dramatic, nearly theatrical. I knew I would find something there. What it would be, I didn't know. That prediction proved true. Everyone had to work together in this scientific adventure to pull in the moorings. There was no other way to do it. 'The orientation of the ship and the scaling of the figures is an attempt to make the viewer feel as though s/he is an active participant in the event. While there was no intent to paint portraits, there was an attempt to set up a psychological relationship between the figures. Some figures look at and relate to one another, another turns back and relates to the viewer, drawing him/her into the painting and making the viewer participate in the event by being drawn in psychologically. The curve at the top of the panel is repeated all through the painting: the slack rope, the crescent moon which is a perfect half-circle upon entering the building, the spherical shapes of the yellow floats in the left foreground, the repetitions of the ropes as they hang from the sediment traps. Things happen with the ropes which create tension. Some ropes are slack, some tight. The black-chains between the yellow spheres are tight, while the white rope in front of them is slack. There is interplay between the ropes. The figures pull the rope tight, thereby creating tension with the slack rope hanging from the block which curves through the painting. Tension exists between the ropes which hold the sediment traps on the ship and the ropes which hang slackly off them. All this tension [is meant to] adds excitement to the painting. Another element that adds excitement to the oceanscape is rhythm. The painting is broken down into groups of three: two groups of three spheres, two groups of three figures, the column upon which the single figure sits is a group of three poles, there are three sediment traps. These recurring rhythms are counter-pointed with the rhythm between the tension and slackness of the ropes and the tension between the rake of the ship and the tilt of the horizon. In the classic form, the strong tilt of the ship is caught by the single standing figure and the three-pronged column. The horizon is caught by the repeated sediment traps which are a vertical element pinning down the diagonal horizon. The triangular elements of the painting, such as the ship, the ocean and the space created by the figure atop the three-pronged column, the yellow spheres on the left and the foot of the figure on the right, [are meant to] give the composition strength and enhance the spatial illusionism of the painting. The image I ended up painting was the one which most clearly expressed my experience on the M.S. Wecoma. The original idea, conceptualizing it, selecting an image that expressed it through the particulars of the event, was a logical process within random occurrences. There was an inevitability to it. The random cruise I went on, the coincidence that the students and scientists were doing a particular kind of science, and the particular drawings and photographs I chose to make to express the original idea, all culminated into one. particular image. Ultimately, when I made a painting it became something all on its own which drew in a whole set of other meanings that were within the image itself but that were not to be predicted. (excerpt taken from Pander's artist statement, 1983)