I extract my artwork from the experience of travel—not from a particular place, but from the velocity of travel itself—its visual bombardment, and its alteration of spatial perceptions.
--Jean Arnold.

Being on the move is a way of life for Americans. Montanans know this well—Montana’s immense landscape and long ribbons of road mean that we are behind the wheel more than most. Jean Arnold was raised in the American West and all her life has been caught up with the land and the built environment we have created. Her fascinating and kaleidoscopically colorful works show us a close observer’s interpretation of this world, framed by car windows, train windows, plane windows. It’s a statement about our culture’s transience and high stakes pace.

Arnold uses rich color and a sophisticated understanding of composition to create paintings with tremendous graphic impact. Her work is very contemporary, but is heir to traditions of painting that developed in the wake of the invention of photography, which changed the way artists “saw.” Her snapshot approach and the implied motion and dynamism of her work capture the way in which visual imagery often comes at us in life today: abbreviated, brash, and quick. Heir as well to the Cubist tradition of a century ago, she expertly seems to show us many views of the same thing simultaneously.

Curated by the artist and the Yellowstone Art Museum’s Senior Curator Robert C. Manchester, this exhibition will be on view only at the Yellowstone Art Museum.

Exhibition Sponsored by First Interstate Bank, Sig and Bev Ross, Northwestern Energy, Tew Gallery, and Phillips Gallery

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