Guest Lecture:

Thursday September 12, 2024
5:30pm at Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art

Please join us at Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art (The Square) for a Guest Lecture presented by Brandon Reintjes, Senior Curator at Missoula Art Museum. The Square's curator, Nicole Maria Evans, invited Reintjes to speak on the art and life of Montana's beloved artist Nancy Erickson (1935-2022). Reintjes was fortunate to have worked closely with Nancy and Ron Erickson over the years to present two milestone solo exhibitions, to have helped place Nancy’s work in numerous collections throughout Montana, and considered Nancy’s life and activism in the context of her groundbreaking contemporary textile art.

May 23, 2024, through September 18, 2024

Note to the Curator: “Hi Nicole, I am so glad that you selected them. They are excellent examples of Nancy’s work for a 30-year period. The first piece Through the Keyhole, was presented as a part of her MFA Thesis show in 1969, it is a good example of the oil paintings that were part of her early work.” -Best Regards, Ron Erickson, Feb. 2023

Nancy Erickson (April 16, 1935-Feb. 7, 2022) lived in a mountain canyon near Missoula, Montana with Ron Erickson (April 20, 1933-May 12, 2024), her beloved partner and with the deer, cougars, and bears who have lived in the canyon for centuries. Ron and Nancy loved their home in Pattee Canyon, where they lived for over fifty years. They succeeded in making it a peaceful sanctuary filled with gardens, art, and Siamese cats. Nancy created fabric constructions, quilts, paintings, and drawings since the 1960s. She was born in Ohio but grew up in Livingston, Montana. Her love for animals and the natural world inspired her to study science at the University of Iowa where she earned a BA in Zoology in 1957 and an MS in Food and Nutrition in 1962. She began to study painting while living in Buffalo, New York, and moved to Missoula in 1965 to pursue art at the University of Montana. In 1969 she received an MFA in painting. Erickson has participated in over 500 exhibitions worldwide since 1965, and her work is found in collections throughout the United States, with the largest collection held at the Missoula Art Museum.

“This exhibition of 7 works of art from the museum’s permanent collection honors Nancy’s work as a renowned artist most celebrated for her larger-than-life quilt paintings featuring animals often intertwined with humans. 6 of the 7 works of art were gifted to the museum by Nancy and Ron in 2022. The exhibition is accompanied by a short film from 2014 featuring Nancy Erickson speaking about her life and work. It is with this exhibit that we continue to celebrate them and honor their work in art, environmentalism, and animal and human rights. Together, they made a meaningful impact on the lives of people and animals and contributed to the protection and health of the Montana landscape.

“Nancy threaded her sculpture with skill, expression, and creativity. They are rich with warmth, colored with passion, soft with empathy, and sewn with deep understanding. She patched them together much in the same way community is built, with admiration for all the differences and a keen understanding of all the particulars, both chaotic and beautiful. She was a kindred spirit to the animals in the forest surrounding her home, and a witness to the calamities of forest fires and human intrusion onto the animal landscape. Often her works echoed the complex relationships between man and animal, sometimes violent and confusing, and other times symbiotic and peaceful.

“Nancy’s understanding of friendship and community helped form a drawing group, the Pattee Canyon Ladies Salon, consisting of a group of women who loved to draw. They hired models for drawing sessions and gathered for more than 33 years in her studio. Her artwork brought her in contact and friendship with a wide group of art quilters, with SAQA-Studio Art Quilt Associates, and throughout the United States. Nancy associated herself with numerous political causes – such as GASP and the Missoula Women for Peace, as well as pursuing other causes related to environmental reform with Ron, who was a professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Montana and took his passion about civic matters and policy to the state level when he ran for and was elected to the Montana House of Representatives for four terms, 1999 to 2005; 2007-2009, and then to the Montana Senate for one term, 2009-2013.

“We are grateful to be part of Nancy and Ron’s circle of friends, thankful for the gifts of art to the community of Great Falls, and for their support and relationship with The Square throughout the years. Take your time as you walk through the gallery. I invite you to enjoy the exhibition, listen to Nancy’s words of delight and awe, and relish in her joy of art, life, love, land, and animals.” -Nicole Maria Evans, Curator of Exhibitions and Collections

This exhibition is curated by Nicole Maria Evans, Curator of Exhibitions and Collection at Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art. Exhibitions at the museum are supported in part by the Montana Arts Council, a state agency funded by the State of Montana, and the National Endowment for the Arts. We are funded in part by coal severance taxes paid based upon coal mined in Montana and deposited in Montana's cultural and aesthetic projects trust fund. Additional funding is provided by museum members and the citizens of Cascade County, Davidson Family Foundation, D.A. Davidson, Horizon Credit Union, an anonymous donor, and Kelly’s Signs & Design.