Robyn O’Neil: The world has won. A final bow was taken.

Anna K. Meredith Gallery
February 26 – May 23, 2010

Robyn O’Neil: The world has won. A final bow was taken. is a survey exhibition devoted to the Omaha-born, Houston-based artist’s work. The world has won. A final bow was taken. looks at O’Neil’s recently completed seven-year series of snowy landscapes and turbulent seas populated with the curious activities of middle-aged men clothed in identical track suits. While the often multi-paneled drawings refer to Italian Renaissance altarpieces, the multi-layered narratives recall the fascinating, complex compositions of Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Using the thinnest graphite available and the largest sheets of paper commercially produced, O’Neil creates minutely detailed drawings that bridge these art historical and biblical allusions to contemporary feelings of alienation and environmental unease. Counterbalancing these stark depictions is a poetic cadence found in the titles of the works that serves to underscore the narrative structure of the series.

Robyn O’Neil: The world has won. A final bow was taken. is accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue with contributions by Patricia Hickson, Emily Hall Tremaine Curator of Contemporary Art at the Wadsworth Atheneum; Brooke Anderson, director and curator of the Contemporary Center of the American Folk Art Museum in New York; and Daniel A. Siedell, assistant professor of art and art history at the University of Nebraska, Omaha. This exhibition has been organized by Gilbert Vicario, curator, Des Moines Art Center and curated by Patricia Hickson, former curator, Des Moines Art Center.

Funding for Robyn O’Neil: The world has won. A final bow was taken. was provided by MetLife Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Robyn O’Neil: The world has won. A final bow was taken.
Related Programs

Conversations on Art: Robyn O’Neil

Tuesday, February 23, 6:30 pm
Levitt Auditorium
FREE admission, reservations required*

Two days prior to the opening of her solo exhibition at the Des Moines Art Center, Robyn O’Neil will deliver a public lecture both about her seven-year-long body of work and the trajectory on which that series has taken her since its completion. O’Neil will also offer insight into her studio practice, conceptual ideas, and personal interest in dramatic weather phenomenon.

*Reservations for this FREE lecture are required and available exclusively through IowaTIX beginning Monday, October 5, 2009. Reserve your seats at www.IowaTIX.com or by phone at 515.277.3727 (9 am — 5 pm, Monday — Friday).

Preview Party

Thursday, February 25, 6 – 8 pm
Des Moines Art Center
Admission $5; FREE for members
Live music by vocalist and keyboardist Daniel Knox
Complimentary hors d’oeuvres and cash bar.

Gallery Talk

Gilbert Vicario, curator
Thursday, March 25, 6:30 pm
Anna K. Meredith Gallery
FREE admission

Join Vicario for a discussion of this exhibition.

Artist’s Choice Film Series: Ingmar Bergman’s “The Trilogy”

All films are FREE and will be shown in Levitt Auditorium.

O’Neil writes, “A Disharmony, a piece in the exhibition, is a part of a trilogy. The trilogy was based on three Ingmar Bergman films that are sometimes referred to as his "Trilogy of Faith,” but should be called his "Loss of Faith" trilogy. Like my trilogy (A Disharmony, A Fracture, and The End), it explores through poetic visual gestures, when the world, or life in general, turns on itself. Death, decay, and disruption. A loss of calm. A gaining of something truly bleak. Devastation. Bergman’s films explore, through cinematic symbolism, reduction and the futility of believing in God or simply being alive. For decades and decades, Bergman depicted grim stories about the human condition amidst stark black and white landscapes. My drawings mirror how Bergman exhibited bleakness and we both survey the futility of simply being human.”

The Bergman Trilogy will be introduced by Jon Winet, associate professor at The University of Iowa and School of Art and Art History area head.

Sunday, April 11, 2 pm
Through a Glass Darkly, 1961
89 minutes, Swedish with English subtitles

Sunday, April 18, 2 pm
Winter Light, 1962
80 minutes, Swedish with English subtitles

Sunday, April 25, 2 pm
The Silence, 1963
95 minutes, Swedish with English subtitles

Guided Tours

We are pleased to offer guided tours of Robyn O’Neil: The world has won. A final bow was taken. and the permanent collections. We can accommodate groups from two to 90 people. It’s a perfect activity for a family, work team, or social group. Please schedule at least three weeks in advance. Contact Jennifer Cooley at jcooley@desmoinesartcenter.org or call 515.271.0328.

Adult Group Tours
$2 per person / $20 minimum fee

Student Tours
FREE