Greetings,
A slight
adjustment to the press release we sent out last week. Due to the snowstorm
in Baltimore last week, our exhibitions teams lost a few precious days of
work. Unfortunately, this means we will be pushing back the opening date of
our Donald Pass: The Hope We Seek exhibition. The new
opening date for the public will be Friday, Feb. 28. We apologize
for any inconvenience, and appreciate if you could update any listings with
this new opening date. An updated press release is also attached if you need
it.
If you
would like to schedule a time to visit the museum, even before the public
opening to preview this show, please feel free to contact me directly.
Thank you,
Nick
Nick Prevas
Director of Communications, Media & Marketing
American Visionary Art Museum
800 Key Highway • Baltimore, MD • 21230
410-244-1900 x241
avam.org • facebook • twitter • instagram
AMERICAN VISIONARY ART MUSEUM
800 Key Highway • Baltimore, MD • 21230
410-244-1900 • http://avam.org
MEDIA CONTACT:
Nick Prevas, 410-244-1900 x241, nick@avam.org
For Immediate Release:
February 12, 2014
Donald Pass: The Hope We Seek
February 21, 2014 – February 22, 2015
Baltimore,
MD—The
American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM) is proud to present Donald Pass:
The Hope We Seek, a celebration of the late British visionary
artist's ethereal spirit paintings, inspired by his own life-changing
glimpse into the afterworld. This retrospective will feature 13 of Pass’
otherworldly works in watercolor, charcoal and other mixed media, along with
a special presentation of author Rich Shapero's forthcoming multimedia
story, with original artwork by the late Donald Pass, also titled The
Hope We Seek. AVAM is pleased to open this yearlong commemorative
exhibition in the 3rd floor gallery of our Zanvyl A. Krieger Main Building,
starting February 21, 2014 and running through February 22, 2015.
As his
artistic adult life took off, Donald Pass (1930–2010) was well-known for his
lyrical abstract landscapes, until the late 1960s when he experienced a
series of spiritual visions that radically and forever changed his view of
reality, and subsequently, his artwork. Sir John Rothenstein, late Director
of the Tate Gallery in London, described Donald Pass as “a spark of genius,
a very rare talent.”
Donald Pass (1930–2010)
Biographical Timeline
-
September 9, 1930, Donald Pass is born in Cheshire, England. While still
a young and dreamy boy, Pass begins painting landscapes of the
countryside near his home. “I have seen angels since I was twelve and
occasionally since . . . I’ve always been psychic. It’s just another way
of seeing.” His mother strongly disapproves and young Pass learns to
keep his visions to himself.
-
At age
15, on a beautiful sunlit day, Pass decides to play hooky from school.
Walking carefree through the countryside, he sees a clear vision of a
lion-faced angel with luminous wings standing by a row of green hedges.
Pass paints his vision of this angel and wins a school prize.
-
At 17,
Pass happily leaves home to pursue art and its study. He learns to paint
portraits, still lives and landscapes and begins to explore abstraction.
He marries, fathers three children and divorces. Pass teaches at the
Liverpool College of Art where one of his young students is the soon to
become legendary Beatle, John Lennon.
-
By the
1960s, Pass is widely exhibited and sells well among the top fashionable
London abstract artists of his day. He also creates a few
Christian-themed religious paintings that are bought by major museums.
-
Valentine’s Day, 1967, Pass marries Jackie, the great love of his life.
-
In
1969, Donald Pass lives in upscale Chelsea as a successful painter,
exhibiting in London and internationally. All this will soon change.
-
Late
1969, after a series of psychic events including a golden face that
appeared at his window and whose light expanded to fill his Chelsea
home, Pass is drawn to travel and sketch at the Cuckfield village
cemetery in rural Sussex. Staring at a soldier’s grave affixed with a
winged Royal Air Force pilot’s insignia, a great darkness descends and
an intense light, unlike anything he had ever known, appears. Pass
witnesses an all encompassing, animated Resurrection-like scene,
accompanied by a sure sense of divine compassion for all beings. Donald
Pass is never again personally or artistically the same.
-
During
the 1970s, unable to find meaning or desire to paint what is fashionable
in the art market, Donald and Jackie fast become greatly impoverished.
Jackie remains his partner as Pass takes on increasingly menial jobs.
-
Forced
to take lodging with Jackie’s daughter, Jenny, Pass and Jackie hang the
only three paintings Pass has managed to create of his Resurrection
experience. By 1984, the then Director of the Tate Gallery, Sir John
Rothenstein, visits and sees enormous value in the work. Encouraged,
Pass begins painting in earnest to better visually capture his
life-changing Resurrection experience—an effort that will wholly occupy
his imagination over the entire last quarter of his life.
-
December 3, 2010, after a long illness, Donald Pass dies, surrounded by
his loving wife Jacqueline and a dear friend at his side.
Although
academically trained in art, Donald Pass has been warmly embraced by many in
the visionary art world as a rare and true visionary, including
Raw Vision
magazine, the Henry Boxer Gallery, and collectors like Rich Shapero and
musician Pete Townshend. His works have been likened in spirit to those
created by William Blake. Donald Pass’ vision-inspired artistry will be
proudly exhibited here at our national American Visionary Art Museum, and is
also represented in our permanent collection.
# # #
AMERICAN VISIONARY ART MUSEUM (AVAM)
is America’s official national museum and education center for self-taught,
intuitive artistry. Since its opening in 1995, the museum has sought to
promote the recognition of intuitive, self-reliant, creative contribution as
both an important historic and essential living piece of treasured human
legacy. The one-of-a-kind American Visionary Art Museum is located on a 1.1
acre wonderland campus at 800 Key Highway, Baltimore Inner Harbor. Three
renovated, historic, industrial buildings house wonders created by farmers,
housewives, mechanics, retired folk, the disabled, the homeless, as well as
the occasional neurosurgeon—all inspired by the fire within. From carved
roots to embroidered rags, tattoos to toothpicks, the visionary transforms
dreams, loss, hopes, and ideals into powerful works of art.
VISITOR INFORMATION:
AVAM is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10:00am–6:00pm. The museum
is closed on *Mondays, Christmas Day and Thanksgiving Day. AVAM is located
next to historic Federal Hill Park at 800 Key Highway, Baltimore Inner
Harbor, 21230. Admission prices, general museum info, directions, and
parking info can be found online at
http://avam.org
or
by calling 410-244-1900. *Open Monday, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as
AVAM’s celebration of all of life’s possibilities—free admission & special
programming!
MEDIA CONTACT: Nick Prevas, 410-244-1900 x241, nick@avam.org
AMERICAN VISIONARY ART MUSEUM
800 Key Highway • Baltimore, MD • 21230
410-244-1900 • http://avam.org
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@TheAVAM • Instagram • Youtube
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