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The Asheville Art Museum will host a retrospective of the works of George Bireline (1923 � 2002), a central and beloved North Carolina artist through February 6, 2005. A long time professor at the School of Design at North Carolina State University, Bireline influenced several generations of artists. He rose to national prominence by the beginning of the 1960s, and received numerous awards and honors, including the 1968 National Council of the Arts' award for the Southeast. His paintings have been included in numerous group exhibitions throughout the United States and several solo exhibitions in North Carolina, including a 1976 retrospective at the North Carolina Museum of Art. His work is included in the permanent collections of a variety of museums, including the Asheville Art Museum, the Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC, and the Hirshhorn Museum of Art in Washington, DC.
George Bireline was born in Peoria, Illinois. After his service in the US Army during WWII, he earned a BFA at Bradley University in Illinois. Bireline then came to North Carolina to attend UNC Chapel Hill, eventually receiving his MFA in 1963. In the 1950s, Bireline spent his summers working in Cherokee as a scenery technician for �Unto These Hills�, beginning a fascination and involvement with the performing arts that would continue throughout his life.
The Asheville Art Museum is open 10 AM � 5 PM, Tuesday through Saturday, and 1-5 PM on Sunday. The Museum is open every Friday until 8 PM. Special docent-guided tour packages are available for groups and students. The Museum is located in the Pack Place Education, Arts and Science Center, 2 South Pack Square, in downtown Asheville. Admission to the Museum is $6.00 for adults and $5.00 for seniors, students with ID and for children 4-15 (children age three and younger are admitted free). Members are admitted free to the Museum. (Images provided by Askart.com and Ackland Museum)
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Bireline�s paintings continuously changed over the decades. His early color field paintings of the 1960s evolved into more figurative art, including trompe l�oeil works that astound and engage the viewer. Later works focus on concerns of human existence � life and death, faith, environmentalism, pollution, the decaying urban landscape, and include incisive, conceptual portraits. Some of his paintings are as much object as painting, incorporating shaped canvases and sculptural elements, including triptychs, three paneled paintings, which can be viewed open or closed. The triptychs are powerful statements, incorporating classic themes from art history with iconic symbols of the present. The first impression of a Bireline, however, may be the extravagant color, which ties together all his work. As Lee Hansley, owner of the Lee Hansley Gallery, says, �George never encountered a color he couldn�t use in his painting. Through his development from early abstraction to abstract impressionism to color field paintings, through his triptych phase, his political and allegorical paintings, and his collection of self-portraits � his most personal works � the constant unifying thread is the trademark Bireline color.�
The exhibition will open to the public with a dance party with Psycho Cupid, a Raleigh band playing pop, jazz, and rock from the 40s through the 70s, and will feature members of Bireline�s immediate family on Friday, November 5, from 5 � 8 PM. The party is free with Museum admission. 