Rita Deanin Abbey’s lifetime of work spans 78 series of art, 59 groups of art, and 22 individual works of art.
Rita Deanin Abbey worked in a variety of materials, techniques, styles, themes, and sizes to create artworks that range from small scale to monumental. She utilized the language of color, line, pattern, texture, and form for inquiry into limitless compositional elements.
Series currently on display in the museum include:
1956–1958
Arches National Monument Series
5 on display, 12 in series
From 1956 to 1959, Abbey experienced the Southwest desert landscape, living in or near national monuments in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. She painted out-of-doors, was awed by the majesty of the desert, and grew fascinated by the geology, plant life, and wildlife she observed.
The Arches National Monument Series, 1956–1958, contrast organic textures with geometric shapes while focusing on color with a textured impasto manner of paint application.
1959–1962
Taos Series
4 on display, 12 in series
The Taos Series serves as a complement to the Arches National Monument Series.
Enamored with the landscapes of New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah, Abbey honed her expressions of color into a palette of cooler tones for this series of works.
1967–1970
Black Art Series
17 on display, 29 in series
Fresh from her move to Las Vegas, Nevada this series is one of Abbey’s most experimental. Using a single color, she examined how different materials interacted with light and texture. Works in this series incorporate various materials such as fiberglass, polyurethane foam, acrylic sheets, and resin. The 3D relief works in this series were inspired by volcanic phenomena such as lava toes and folded lava.
“Using black as the lone color in a work of art emphasizes the significance of texture, light, and form. It also acts as a unifying force and conjures a multiplicity of meanings. Inner tensions from darkness come to life, pulsate, and enlarge under varied light conditions. Changing light also drastically alters form as it yields surface contours.”
– Rita Deanin Abbey
1975
Texture Series
7 on display, 7 in series
In 1975 and 1977, Abbey explored textured surfaces, producing the Texture Series. The surface of the canvases were built-up to achieve earth-like textures using the application of acrylic paint, sand, and sawdust mixed with polymer gloss medium.
With highly textured surfaces suggestive of geological processes and forms, and with precise use of color, the paintings acquire a sense of earth’s tension, movement, and contour. Her eagerness to explore new materials continued to foster experimentation with textures. Restricted hues mixed with sand, sawdust, and earth created flowing planes of textured surfaces.
1970–1976, 1985
MuralS
2 on display, 5 in series
Two of Rita Deanin Abbey’s murals are on permanent display at the museum. Her work in plexiglass murals diversified the hard-edge format, adapting it to new and unexpected curvilinear forms, using opaque plexiglass sheets instead of acrylic paint.
1979–1987
From Desert to Bible VistAs
6 on display, 22 in series
The From Desert to Bible Vistas series combines mysterious structural forms with haunting atmospheric qualities. In the act of painting, Abbey strives to discover images based on visual perceptions and subjective impressions of desert phenomena. She also drew from meaningful and salient aspects selected from her everyday life. These paintings are diverse in style, but their unifying element and Abbey’s source of inspiration are the forces of nature.
1984–2006
Porcelain Enamels fired on Metal
48 on display, 145 in series
During a sabbatical in 1984, Rita Deanin Abbey studied with Professor John Killmaster at Boise State University and began working with porcelain enamel on steel.
Abbey was attracted to vitreous enamels because of the intensity and fastness of the color, the luminous, reflective hard surface, the possibilities for contrasting impasto with transparent layers, and the malleability and resistance of the metal. She respected and loved the wide range of color and sculptural possibilities in the enameling process. By using painting and spraying applications of porcelain enamel on steel panels or hammered shapes, she fired the surfaces several times, striving to intensify textures, subtleties, and contrasts of color. To enhance the dynamics of space, she often juxtaposes hammered enamels with relief wood carvings or enameled panels.
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