The Midwest Museum of American Art is pleased to present a new exhibit featuring the artwork of Abner Hershberger.
Hershberger, Professor of Art Emeritus at Goshen College, has been an active painter and printmaker for over six decades. The Legacy Collection, owned by MMAA, presents an overview of his work. The exhibit features early drawings and Hershberger’s signature abstractions of aerial views of his beloved Midwestern landscapes including, his birth state of North Dakota.
When asked to describe his first experience with art-making, the artist recalled, “Art-making began early for me. Available art materials were #2 lead pencils and white butcher paper. Subject matter was primarily drawing what I saw around me and remembered after carefully examining the semi-trucks I saw in town. My second-grade teacher observed my artistic inclinations and gave me colored chalk to make seasonal drawings on the classroom chalkboard. What a thrill that was! As time moved on, plowing and cultivating those 720 acres of our North Dakota farm flatlands caused me to envision what the crop-dusting pilot saw as he flew over our land. I eventually left the farm and studied art in college and graduate school. However, those years in North Dakota never left me. The visual poetry experienced in those fields lived on through art. Bold cultivation stripes, field markers, and corn stalks were in contrast with textured grain and grassy fields. This became my aerial interpretation of the landscape I knew so well. Drawn, painted, printed, or sculpted media gave me artistic vehicles upon which to base my art into my late eighties.”
This exhibit curated by MMAA Director Brian Byrn resulted in 33 additional works added to the MMAA permanent collection. This exhibit is a must-see and insightful look into the life of a major Michiana painter who has impacted our cultural landscape.
Admission to the Midwest Museum of American Art is $10 per adult visitor, $6 ages 8-12, $8 ages 13-18, $8 for college students with ID. The Midwest Museum of American Art is open Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. & Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m. – 4 p.m. MASKS REQUIRED TO ENTER.