First Friday at the Four Seasons

Wednesday, February 08, 2012

By Aaron Wallis

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Since Jackson is a small town without non-wildlife art museums, resort hotels assume preeminence as cultural custodians of contemporary art. Typical hotel art is intended to make people feel comfortable and evoke a familiar sense of place. Otherwise the Motel 6 by the interstate leaves one feeling hollow and adrift in a pre-fab world. Even if you’re lucky enough to get the room next to the methamphetamine fueled trucker who spends all night banging a lot lizard into the headboard.

My search for Jackson’s premier hotel art collection leads me to Teton Village and the Shooting Star which happens to have an excellent early Aaron Wallis silkscreen “The Outlaw Josey Wales.” I think we can all agree the contest is over and proclaim that the Shooting Star the best hotel art collection in Jackson. But I had some time to kill and was not drunk yet, so I wandered over to check out the paintings at the Four Seasons.

One really has to snoop around to find some of the art. Six-figure gems of modern art are hidden behind double hallways leading to phone booths or storage closets. There are also the usual mediocre pieces that are included because they have wildlife. For example Equine Trio by Suzanne Creighton: imagine a five year old trying to paint a horse with only pastel colors on a large canvas. But if you prefer work that intentionally looks like it’s by a five year old there are at least ten Miró’s down the hall.

On the fourth floor down past the clothing store are some amazing photolithographs “Le Flur De Barbe” by Jean Dubuffet. Just stunning black and white prints of some transferred textures comprising strange faces with accompanying text in French. As a lithographer I can say it is by far the most technically demanding of all the printmaking processes. Other great litho’s in the Four Season’s include Romaine Bearden’s Jazz Series in the bar area. And if you’re at the bar, don’t forget to check out the Giacometti’s hiding behind the concierge desk.

Continuing on with exceptional prints one finds numerous examples of Marcus Eliesler Bloch, a German artist who produced exquisite hand colored engravings of fish. Across from Bloch – in the hall by the ballroom – are a series of five elegant black and white works depicting poppies and echinacea flowers. I’m not sure who the artist is as there is no label accompanying the work. There are actually four or five pieces in the hotel missing labels. Anyway, I love when an artist takes cliché subject matter like flowers and creates something bold yet refined.

Down past the ballroom, by the bathrooms, a tiny Jay Tracy is hiding. Tracy used a thermograph or fax machine to burn paper. It’s one of those pieces many people will look at and say, “That’s art?” Yes it is, way better than looking at another damn horse painting. Have another drink, this old fashioned really is quite good.

courtesy AARON WALLIS
Jazz Series, a lithography by Romaine Bearden, hangs in the Four Season’s bar area.

PERMALINK:
First Friday at the Four Seasons | Planet JH News Article: Arts Beat

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