Gary Ernest Smith, Coming into the Valley, oil on panel, 12 x 16.
Crossroads Carnegie Art Center, Baker City, OR
May 24-July 21
Baker County in eastern Oregon, with a population just shy of 17,000, and its county seat, historic Baker City, with some 10,000 residents, may never have seen anything quite like the major art event opening Memorial Day weekend. Towards Home: The Artwork of Gary Ernest Smith at Crossroads Carnegie Art Center offers both a select retrospective and abundant recent artworks—more than 80 pieces in all. Smith is an 82-year-old native son of the city and widely celebrated for his masterly tonalist paintings of rural Oregonians, both historic and present-day, and the lands in which they live and work.
Upwards of 29,000 people are expected to attend the show during its run at the vibrant art center, housed in a historic and impeccably restored structure originally built in 1909 as one of the more than 2,500 libraries endowed worldwide by philanthropist-businessman Andrew Carnegie. “We are among the grandest of the community’s many remarkable historic structures,” notes the center’s executive director, Ginger Savage, who’s been key in collaborating with the artist on the show itself and a series of opening events extending from its first week through the entire run.
Gary Ernest Smith, Ernie, oil on linen, 20 x 16.
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- Gary Ernest Smith, View from the Corral, oil on panel, 8 x 8.
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- Gary Ernest Smith, Pioneer with Rifle, oil on panel, 12 x 9.
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- Gary Ernest Smith, Oregon Pioneers, oil on linen, 24 x 30.
The festivities begin at 10 a.m. on Friday, May 24, with an official dignitary-laden ceremony held about 8 miles away at the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. The center is reopening after a two-year renovation and debuting Smith’s newly completed PIONEERS PASS THROUGH THE BAKER VALLEY, a 48-by-72-inch oil-on-linen scene of the westward migration. Then, the doors open across town at Crossroads Carnegie. During the first week or so, the center will welcome visits from county schoolchildren, talks by Smith himself, catalog and book signings, and special dinners—including one the artist specifically requested with Baker County’s farmers and ranchers. After all, says Smith, “I’m not doing this show for art’s sake. I’m doing it to commemorate the people and culture of this community.”
Gary Ernest Smith, Rest at Noon, oil on linen, 16 x 24.
Gary Ernest Smith, Oregon Pioneers into Baker Valley, oil on panel, 16 x 20.
Many of those people have posed for Smith over the years in historical paintings like PIONEER WITH RIFLE and depictions of present-day ranchers such as the cowboy in BRING UM IN. The artist’s late father appears twice in the show: in the portrait ERNIE and in a view of the family’s spread, ERNEST SMITH RANCH. Undoubtedly the main star in all the works is the region. It’s seen in serenely beautiful landscapes like COMING INTO THE VALLEY, painted just last year but harking back to Smith’s own boyhood view of the area each time he and his family headed into town.
Such scenes go to the very heart of what this show means to Smith. “It commemorates so much of who and what I was growing up here and what that culture gave me as an artist,” he says. “I want this show to be something that talks to the average visitor, who’s going to look at these paintings and say, ‘I know that person. I know that culture. I know that place. This is my home.’” The artist reflects for a moment at the impact of those words, before concluding, “To me, this is the best show of my life.” —Norman Kolpas
contact information
(541) 523-5369
crossroads-arts.org