MCAM FEATURE PUBLICATION | Ron Nagle
A Survey Exhibition: 1958–1993
Published in conjunction with the eponymous exhibition at Mills College Art Museum in 1993. The exhibition traveled to The Carnegie Museum of Art and The Everson Museum of Art. MCAM online book store: Click here
Excerpt from catalog essay, Ron Nagle, written by Micheal McTigwan
Ron Nagle still believes in Beauty. “When I say ‘beautiful’,” he explains, “I don’t mean pretty or decorative, I mean something that connects in some profound, moving peaceful way.”He believes the talent for art making is a gift — ”It’s like you had nothing to do with it. Songwriters talk about this all the time, about being the vessel and it just coming through you.” He believes that art, made with “the right combination of ingredients and some fairy dust, or whatever it takes” brings human beings to a transcendental state in which the everyday world just fades away. After thirty-five years of work, Nagle still reveres “the sanctity of the object,” the intimacy of small scale things. His intimate forms, aglow from their own inner light, capture and hold our eye in a meditative gaze. He forcefully demonstrates, as few artists have, that such diminutive objects can be as compelling as the largest public sculpture.
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