January 16 - March 9, 2007
in the Dadian Gallery

Abner Hershberger:
A Visiting Artist Returns
An exhibition in honor of Trever Bennett

Abner Hershberger Headlands and Furrows - 2004 © -- 36 x 36 inches- Acrylic 

Images of North Dakota and the midwest flatland – these vast expanses of expressive grids of grain punctuated with cultivation – are always with me.  These are the fields I plowed well into adulthood.  The stark markings of furrowed land, patterns of irrigation, and stubble fields seem almost poetic and thus, a constant source of material for visual expression.  Abstracted, their imprint seems even bolder, somewhat the way it feels when working the land, beckoning as though it were a spiritual ritual.

Abner Hershberger

Abner Hershberger has spent most of his professional life making and teaching art at Goshen College, Indiana.  During his second sabbatical leave there, in the academic year 1981-82, he became one of the earliest Artists-in-Residence at Wesley Theological Seminary. Then, as now, the studio was shared space, open to the community as a place of questioning, creativity, and theological musing. In a recent letter, Hershberger wrote of his time here,

The experience at Wesley was significant and timely for me in many ways.... However, I would like to note one of the significant ways this experience impacted me as an artist. As a Christian artist, I was often asked about the relevance of my abstract style of art..."Where's the message?" Cathy [Kapikian] was a constant advocate, often articulating the sanctity of creative expression.  Because I felt deeply about making art and I also valued the support of the faith community, it was important to be encouraged by one who is a practicing artist herself.

Now, 25 years later, Hershberger returns to the seminary to show us the results of a lifetime of devotion to both art and Christian faith. His recent abstract paintings and prints, which he refers to as "field notes," reflect both a mastery of formal composition and a deep attachment to the land which formed – and continues to inform – his spiritual and visual sensibility.

These works, with their rich colors, mysterious forms, and multiple layers, do not describe any particular landscape, but rather evoke the essence of the land itself. In this way, they honor the spirit of Trever Bennett, whose watercolors of the West depicted a land that she loved, and in whose name this exhibition is endowed.

Deborah Sokolove
Curator, Dadian Gallery

List of Works

Heartland Arabesque I, acrylic/gouache, 12 x 21, 2003.

Heartland Arabesque II, acrylic/gouache, 12 x 21, 2003

Heartland Arabesque III, acrylic/gouache, 12 x 21, 2004

Heartland Arabesque IV, acrylic/gouache, 12 x 21, 2004

Field Fragment VI, monotype, 20 x 24, 1987

Red Earth I, acrylic on canvas, 16 x 16, 2005

Red Earth II, acrylic on canvas, 16 x 16, 2005

Heartland Imprint III, collagraph, 17 x 17, 2005

Heartland Imprint IV, collagraph, 17 x 17, 2005

Field Formation IX, collagraph, 52 x 44, 1992

Planar Ritual, acrylic on canvas, 66 x 66, 2000

Headlands and Furrows, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36, 2004

Headlands, acrylic on canvas, 36 x  48, 2001

Field Formation III, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60, 2003

Vantage Point II, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40, 2004

Autumn Field, acrylic on canvas, 37 x 37, 1990

Winter Field, acrylic on canvas, 37 x 37, 1982

Out Croppings I, collagraph, 24 x 32, 1993

Sky Plain, monotype, 24 x 32, 1987

Headlands II, monotype, 24 x 32, 1994

Blue Grass Markings, collagraph, 24 x 32, 1995

Field Rotation, collagraph, 24 x 32, 1993