{"id":1831,"date":"2014-06-23T15:39:45","date_gmt":"2014-06-23T19:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/?p=1831"},"modified":"2019-01-10T10:46:33","modified_gmt":"2019-01-10T15:46:33","slug":"in-memoriam-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/2014\/06\/23\/in-memoriam-2\/","title":{"rendered":"In Memoriam"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Lara Ehrlich | Photo by Jon Imber<\/h4>\n
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\u201cLife, in Imber\u2019s paintings, unfurls with wayward force, like a thick, flicked rope,\u201d Boston Globe<\/em> critic Sebastian Smee wrote of the master painter’s work. “Self-Portrait” by Jon Imber<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In his early work, New England painter Jon Imber<\/a> (\u201977) created \u201chulking, volumetric figures with tiny strokes,\u201d says Cate McQuaid of the Boston Globe<\/em>. \u201cThey were a strange, striking blend of Romanesque art and…blocky, cartoonish figures…all executed with brushy, fastidious mark-making akin to Van Gogh\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

He moved from figures to abstract landscapes inspired by the summers he spent in Maine\u2014and then to works characterized by expressive brushstrokes when he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig\u2019s Disease, which took the use of his painting hand first. As the disease progressed, he lost use of both hands and could no longer stand\u2014but continued to paint using brushes and a dowel attached to a headset.<\/p>\n

Imber died<\/a> on April 17, 2014, leaving a legacy of work held in collections including the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He taught at Harvard for 27 years and helped found an artists\u2019 co-op, Mix-It Studios, in Somerville, Massachusetts. In 1999, BU hosted Imber\u2019s mid-career retrospective.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife, in Imber\u2019s paintings, unfurls with wayward force, like a thick, flicked rope,\u201d Boston Globe<\/em> critic Sebastian Smee wrote in his review of Imber\u2019s 2013 career survey at Queens College in New York. \u201cIt takes on vital cadences. It laughs at itself, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watch a clip from the film Jon Imber\u2019s Left Hand<\/em>, which traces the artist’s determination to continue painting as his condition progressed, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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