Poster Of An Abstract Painting Is The Reward For Gifts For The Arts

Whidbey Island painter Mary Henry has never believed in jumping on the latest trend. In a statement she wrote in 1988 to accompany a show of her work in Bellingham, she noted that, "I found my way of working long ago and I stay with it, working to develop my ideas within my own boundaries, trying to push further and further out. . . . I just paint shapes and colors in relationships that excite and satisfy me. Hopefully, others will feel as I do and get a lift of excitement when they come upon one of my paintings on a wall."

Starting this month, a lot of people are going to be noticing at least one of Henry's paintings, and, quite likely, they will get a "lift of excitement" when they see it.

"Standard," a black, white, gray and yellow abstract Henry painted in 1992, was chosen as the artwork on this year's Corporate Council for the Arts poster. Corporations or individuals who donate at least $1,200 to this year's council campaign receive one of the limited-edition posters, meaning that quite a few end up in offices around the city. The posters were designed by Rick Eiber Design, printed by Grossberg Tyler Lithographers and underwritten by the Weyerhaeuser Company Foundation.

At 82, Henry is no newcomer to art. A native of California who put herself through the California College of Arts and Crafts during the Depression, Henry's work has been shown at galleries and museums up and down the West Coast, as well as in New York, Nebraska, Israel and Portugal. For the last 20 years she's lived on Whidbey Island, where she paints about five hours a day and graciously invites people she's never met (such as this reporter) to her home to see her garden. She's also busy trying to make the deadline for her next show, which will be at the Bernard M. Baruch College in New York in September.

An abstract painter in the modernist tradition, her strong, balanced canvases suggest the work of turn-of-the-century painter Piet Mondrian, one of the granddaddies of pure abstraction. "I look at work I did in the '60s and it looks the same," said Henry, who had her last solo show in October at the Linda Cannon Gallery in Seattle. "I've always liked abstraction, color. I've never thought much about trying to change or do anything differently."

Was she surprised that one of her works was chosen for the poster? "I certainly was," she said. "I was just floored."

Also honored this year by the Corporate Council for the Arts, historically the city's most generous, privately funded arts support organization, were artists Jacob Lawrence and his wife, Gwendolyn Knight, who received lifetime achievement awards and standing ovations from the crowd of 1,100 who attended the council's annual luncheon, held Tuesday at the Westin Hotel.

Looking every inch the much-beloved, widely acclaimed artist that he is, Lawrence credited his successful career to the New York and Harlem arts communities that nurtured him in his youth, and the Seattle arts community and the University of Washington, which invited him here in 1971 to teach and paint.

Frank and jazz

If you haven't been down to Tacoma yet to see the Tacoma Art Museum's exhibit "Robert Frank: The Americans," you might consider making the trip Thursday. To tie in with Frank's historic documentary photographs of America in the '50s, the museum is sponsoring a 7 p.m. jazz concert by the Floyd Standifer Quartet and vocalist Edmonia Jarrett, a group of musicians rooted in the be-bop jazz of the '40s and '50s. Tickets are $5 at the door or by phone, (206) 272-4258.

Sylvain Klaus dies

The Seattle art community lost another member on May 7, when painter Sylvain Klaus died of AIDS. He was 37. A native of Mississippi, Klaus studied painting at Delta State University and did graduate work in art at the University of Colorado and the San Francisco Art Institute. He was later employed for eight years by textile designer Jack Lenor Larson, but in the early '90s decided to devote himself to his first love: painting.

Klaus was represented for the last five years by Grover/Thurston Gallery. His final show was held there in November 1995, and his gift for rendering intensely emotional, abstracted, metaphorical vistas of sea, sky and land were on full display.