| Block Prints & A (Brief) Closure: Winter at the Museum by Moab Museum Staff |
This winter at the Moab Museum, exhibits and programs invite community members to explore the artistic legacy of block printer and writer Everett Ruess. With special thanks to the Utah Department of Arts and Museums’ traveling exhibit, viewers have the opportunity to view both prints and linocuts from Everett Ruess – embodying the distinction between the original carving and print. Visitors to the Moab Museum now have the opportunity to see Ruess’ prints alongside perspectives and artistic interpretations from three local printmakers who draw inspiration from the young artist’s legacy. Their contributions add rich perspective about Ruess’ work.
Ruess has served as inspiration for artists in Moab over the years. Prints from Moab block printers Chad Neihaus, Deborah McDermott, and Maggie McGuire exemplify and showcase the versatility and stylistic range of the medium. Maggie McGuire, local artist, writer and editor in chief at the Moab Sun News, writes, “no matter how well one knows the original image, each print is a surprise to the creator.
“Many printmakers, myself included, admire Everett Ruess' masterful black and white prints,” said Deborah McDermott in a statement now included in the exhibit. “Knowing of them when I moved here most certainly influenced my decision to make landscape prints of my own.” McDermott’s work may be found at Gallery Moab, and two of her prints joined Ruess’ on exhibit at the Moab Museum for display through the end of February 2023.
Chad Neihaus is another local block printer who has long drawn inspiration from Ruess. “I adore block printing for its accessibility, immediacy, and durability,” says Neihaus. “Pretty much anyone can do it after a little instruction, the subject matter is reduced to the bold essentials, and a compelling moment can be re-experienced for many years each time another print is pulled.”
Community members are invited to sign up to join Neihaus for a beginner’s block printing class at the Museum on February 16th, 2023, from 5-8pm. Registration online via the Museum’s website is required. The three-hour course costs $40 for Museum members and $50 for nonmembers.
Alongside winter programming and exhibits, Museum staff will continue our three-year effort to upgrade object housing, storage, and artifact preservation capacities. Our 2023 goal is to begin relocating objects to an off-site storage facility with an environmentally-controlled vault to hold our most perishable and fragile artifacts, and work toward the consolidation of all collection’s objects in this new facility by mid-2024. The goal of this process is to ensure the Museum is able to maintain the objects entrusted to our care at the highest standards and best practices for collections care.
In order to attend to these efforts, the Museum will be closed from January 8-23rd,
and will reopen on Tuesday, January 24th.
To learn more about Museum membership, programs and exhibits, and to read the Museum’s blog and explore online archives and collections, please visit moabmuseum.org
| Movie & Western Memorabilia Museum at Red Cliffs Lodge |
The late George White was founder of the Moab to Monument Valley Film Commission, the longest ongoing film commission in the world.
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Red Cliffs Lodge, on the banks of the mighty Colorado River, is home to the Moab Museum of Film & Western Heritage. The lodge is built on the old George White Ranch, a key location for nine of the big westerns including Rio Grande, Cheyenne Autumn, Ten Who Dared, The Commancheros, and Rio Conchos.
Through the magnificent landscapes of southeastern Utah, writers have been inspired and stories born here. Zane Grey, the famous western novelist, traveled through the area in 1912. His visit inspired him to write his book Riders of the Purple Sage. The book was made into a movie starring Ed Harris and Amy Madigan, and filmed on locations around Moab.