Artists on the Road: 'The Coast of Death' - March 15

Philip Ogle, professor of art and design, will present “The Coast of Death,” the second talk in the spring 2018 series “Artists on the Road: Travel as Source of Inspiration,” on Thursday, March 15, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in Upton Hall 230.

Ogle was awarded a residency in Corme, Spain, through the Fundación Torre Pujales Artists in Residence Program. Corme is located on the Costa da Morte, or “Coast of Death,” in the Province of A Coruña, Galicia. 

The northwest coast of Spain is an area of Europe that the well-traveled Ogle had not previously visited. He was surprised at how verdant it was compared with the south of the country. He said the best part of his residency was being able to tour the local villages. The residency itself was located in a town with the only surviving Roman lighthouse, the Tower of Hercules, built in the first century to protect Roman ships from the especially treacherous coast.

He was surprised by “the unexpected beauty of Goya’s 'black paintings,' housed in the Prado."

"These are frescos originally painted on the walls of his home and later salvaged,” he said. He considers them to be “precursors of the modern age.”

Additionally, Ogle had always wanted to see the Frank Gehry–designed Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, and he had never been to a Biennale in Venice. He was able to accomplish both these goals as well during his sabbatical of late spring 2017.

Ogle earned his B.F.A. from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and his M.F.A. in sculpture from the Maryland Institute of Art in Baltimore. He has won a Bush Fellowship, the Emily Rothschild Award, a Henry Walters European Fellowship, and the Ethel Van Derlip Award, as well as other fellowships and faculty development grants. He currently teaches Drawing Foundations and Themes and Issues in Contemporary Art for the newly formed Art and Design Department.

The Artists on the Road series is co-sponsored by the Art and Design Department and the International and Exchange Programs Office. For more information, please contact Carol Townsend, associate professor of art and design and coordinator of design foundations, 878-4986.

Photo: Ogle in front of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.