Columns:: Georgia Museum of Art exhibits works by American realist Whalley

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Columns::September 10, 2001

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John Whalley’s painting Late Sun is one of 46 works included in the exhibition opening this week at the Georgia Museum of Art.

Georgia Museum of Art exhibits works by American realist Whalley
Graphite drawings, oil paintings and egg tempera paintings by American realist John Whalley will be on display at the Georgia Museum of Art from Sept. 15 through Oct. 28 in a significant exhibition organized by the museum. Whalley, whose skilled attention to detail is evident in each of his paintings and drawings, is known for responding to what he refers to as “the beauty that speaks softly” in each one of his subjects. A survey of Whalley’s work reveals the beauty he sees in the most familiar subjects and surroundings: children, senior citizens, lakeside landscapes and sunlit still lifes.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1954, Whalley was encouraged by his artist mother to draw and paint at an early age. He completed his first oil painting at eight years of age at his childhood home in upstate New York, amid the beauty of deep rural woods, hills and lakeshore.
After considering a career in architecture, Whalley pursued formal art training at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he majored in illustration and minored in drawing and painting.
In 1976, he married classmate Linda Hoffman, and they moved to Bridgewater, Mass., where Whalley contributed regularly to several New England publications. In 1979, they moved to Lima, N.Y., then to Harrison Valley, Pa., in 1981. In Harrison Valley, the Whalleys developed a therapeutic art program for abused and abandoned children on a private 300-acre farm; it was this farm that inspired many of Whalley’s early works.
After the birth of their two sons, the Whalley family moved to Standish, Maine, where Whalley completed a series of oil paintings and began working in a large format on his graphite still lifes. While in Maine, he became involved with Renaissance International, an assistance organization in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., which prompted him to move there for research on the needs of homeless children in El Salvador. Since 1987, the Whalleys have blended their work in the fine arts with teaching and a commitment to providing a home and a future for the “street children” of the United States and Central and South America.
John Whalley: American Realist contains 46 works completed from 1976 to 1996 and was curated by S. William Pelletier and in-house curator Cecelia Hinton.

—Bonnie Ramsey

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