Past Exhibition

Royal Nebeker: Dreams and Allusions

June 4 – August 28, 2016

Melvin Henderson-Rubio Gallery

Royal Nebeker (1945-2014) was an accomplished Astoria, Oregon symbolist painter and teacher who created highly personalized narratives based on dreams and memories, often embellished with words and notations that helped drive his narrative. This major retrospective exhibition of Nebeker's paintings and prints has been organized by director John Olbrantz, and features 36 paintings and prints drawn from public and private collections on the West Coast. 

Throughout his career, Nebeker focused on the human figure. His work was strongly influenced by the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, the German Expressionists, and by the Vienna Secessionist artists Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and others. Although his early teachers in the United States and Norway encouraged him to embrace the tenets of Abstract Expressionism, he remained first and foremost a figurative artist throughout his life.

The artist said of his work, “For me, this process of painting resembles looking through a night window. I peer out, observing and at the same time see the reflection of the interior conditions of my own reality. It is my intent that as the viewer peers into my painting he will not only see a visual record of meaning in my life but will discover the reflection of meaning in their own, as in a night window.”

Nebeker studied in California at the Claremont College and Otis Art Institute, and received a Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) at Brigham Young University in 1970. He then went on to complete a postgraduate degree, equivalent to an MFA, from the National School of Fine Arts in Oslo, Norway, in 1972. He taught at Clatsop Community College between 1974 and 2014 and served as an Oregon Arts Commissioner.

Nebeker’s paintings and prints have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe and is included in public and private collections in the United States, Norway, Germany, and Poland.

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Exhibition Related Events

Conversation
Remembering Royal Nebeker
John Olbrantz, Moderator
Friday, June 3, 2016
5—6 pm
Paulus Lecture Hall, Willamette University College of Law
Free and open to the public
Friends, family members, and former colleagues of the artist will reflect on Nebeker's life and career. 
More information

Reception
Friday, June 3, 2016
6—8 pm
Maribeth Collins Lobby, Hallie Ford Museum of Art
Refreshments
RSVP by May 31 (acceptances only: 503-370-6855, museum-art@willamette.edu)


Tuesday Gallery Talk
June 7 | 12:30 p.m.
Hallie Ford Museum of Art
Free and open to the public
Join museum docent Janet Neuberg for a guided tour of the exhibition.

Tuesday Gallery Talk
July 5 | 12:30 p.m.
Hallie Ford Museum of Art
Free and open to the public
Join museum docent Molly Fitzsimmons for a guided tour of the exhibition.

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Financial Support

Financial support for this exhibition has been provided by general operating support grants from the City of Salem’s Transient Occupancy Tax funds and the Oregon Arts Commission.