UNO exhibit to feature iconic local muralist

By: Jobeth Devera, KETV

OMAHA, Neb. —University of Nebraska at Omaha students are helping people appreciate fine art by showcasing an unknown artist who has turned into a local icon.

The students are transporting some age-old artwork and setting up an exhibit to honor a world-reknown artist and Iowa native.

“My granduncle, Louis Grell, was born in Council Bluffs in 1887 and lived there until 1900 when he went to Europe to begin training to become an artist, then he was based out of Chicago until 1960 and painted murals all over the country,” said Richard Grell.

— Video: Iowa native’s artwork to be featured at UNO

Louis Grell’s work didn’t quite hit the spotlight until after he died in 1960.

“He was a very private artist and didn’t like to promote his career,” said Louis Grell.

So the UNO students are showcasing his work for him.

“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity that we’re not going to be able to do again. The circumstances are just unbelievable to make something like this happen,” said Candace Berger.

Although his work has been featured in bigger art galleries, this is the first exhibit solely dedicated to Louis Grell.

“You get to come in and see a local artist who made it in the world,” said Jean Rowe.

Discovering Louis Grell American Muralist Art Exhibit will run Jan. 17 to Feb. 20 at UNO’s campus.

See more at http://www.ketv.com/news/local-news/uno-exhibit-to-feature-iconic-local-muralist/-/9674510/23816464/-/m2wusm/-/index.html#ixzz2r9yCgCKN

UNO students learn curating; Bluffs native Louis Grell gets his due

By Kate Howard Perry / World-Herald staff writer

The works of Council Bluffs native and muralist Louis Grell have never had a comprehensive exhibit. University of Nebraska at Omaha art students have never curated an exhibit from start to finish.

Both will happen in the UNO Art Gallery, where an exhibit of Grell’s paintings and drawings opens Friday.

Art majors researched, selected and even hung and labeled the works through a class designed around the creation of the exhibit. The students organized themselves into teams – research, curating, archiving material and writing the labels that would accompany the art at the gallery.

“This class is incredibly unusual,” said Amy Morris, assistant professor of art history at UNO, who led the seminar. “Most of our history classes are more academic — follow a textbook, look at certain images.”

But this class offered students the rare opportunity to look at a local artist who was commissioned for more than 100 murals in the early 20th century but hasn’t been heavily researched.

Morris brought in the curator from the Joslyn Art Museum to teach the basics of creating an exhibit and members of the Grell family to discuss their research. She also took the class on a field trip to the Grell family farm in Council Bluffs.

The project started a couple of years ago when Richard Grell, the late artist’s grand-­nephew, brought some of his family’s paintings to the Gerald R. Ford Conservation Center to be conserved and mentioned that he hoped to display them someday. A staff member there suggested that UNO might be interested, and the idea of building a seminar around creating the exhibit was born.

Richard Grell visited with distant family members around the country to acquire more pieces on loan and formed a foundation in September dedicated to acquiring and keeping together the art of Louis Grell, who died in 1960.

Last fall, the class began its work.

Richard Grell attended almost every class and said just hearing other people discussing his grand-uncle was shocking, since everything he knew before he started his research — he has a mural in Times Square, he once taught Walt Disney at a Chicago art school — he heard from inside his family.

“To sit in the classes and hear other experts talking about ­Louis Grell’s style and technique, it blew me away,” Richard Grell said.

For students in the class, it provided an experience that’s hard to get as an undergrad, said Candace Berger, a senior art history major who was one of the curators of the exhibit. Berger has a work-study job in the gallery and hopes to work in a museum after graduation.

She and her classmates learned how much goes into an exhibit, including framing and measuring photos to hang at eye level and telling a story with the order of the pictures.

The class was a big time commitment; Berger didn’t really have a Christmas break as final preparations were underway. But as the class finished hanging the pictures this week, Berger said seeing the physical manifestation of their work was amazing.

“It was very rewarding that we could work together to do this instead of staring at pictures on a wall or a teacher’s PowerPoint,” she said.

Now she can add curating to her résumé, Berger said, which shouldn’t hurt when she starts looking for a museum job either.

See more at http://www.omaha.com/article/20140116/NEWS/140119057/1694#uno-students-learn-curating-bluffs-native-louis-grell-gets-his-due

1936 Davis Stores Exhibit 3 Man Show

1936 Davis Stores Exhibit 3 Man Show

Julius Moessel, “Springtime”

Louis Grell, “Portrait of the Painter, Moessel”, 1935

AN EXHIBITION of MURAL and EASEL PAINTINGS by JULIUS MOESSEL, CHARLES HALLOWAY and LOUIS GRELL from June 16 until June 30, 1936 in the Eight Floor ART GALLERIES, THE DAVIS STORE. “three of Chicago’s most noted artists…” “Each one of the three artists excel in not only mural work but easel paintings that are expert in their execution and challenging in their psychology. Each one is exceptionally versatile and draws freely upon tradition-mythology, the bible, science, literature and their own creative imaginations. This exhibition clearly indicates Moessel, Halloway and Grell as artists of sound accomplishment and tremendous power.”

Three Ranking Artists Offer Stunning Show by Eleanor Jewett, Chicago Tribune, June 18, 1936 page 18

“A stunning exhibition of mural and easel paintings by Julius Moessel, Charles Holloway and Louis Grell has opened in the Davis store eight floor galleries, to continue to June 30.”

“A long wall of large figure paintings by Louis Grell is most stimulating. Mr. Grell is a painter with vision and power and his saga of romantic personages is bravely sung. When he comes down from the mountain peak of allegory and walks the comparatively modest plains of portraiture his talents stand him in equally good stead. Two of his finest canvases are the portrait of Julius Moessel and “Lady with Spaniel.””

Two Exhibitions Receive Praise of Art Critic by Eleanor Jewett Chicago Tribune, March 26, 1935 page 13

“The magnificent and romantic canvases by Louis Grell afford a second contrast. Mr. Grell paints with vision, sweep, and imagination. His “Forest Idyll” is a remarkably unified and beautiful mural. His portrait of Julius Moessel is extraordinarily fine and that of “Lady with Dog(Spaniel)” is as delightful as any given us by Gainsborough.”

That comparison is to Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) the famous English portrait artist of the Kings and Queens of England and was a quote from an influential art critic on hand at the Chicago Galleries Association.

From the exhibition catalog

A connection between Louis Grell and Walt Disney

What is the connection between Louis Grell and Walt Disney?

WALT DISNEY ART SCHOOL TRANSCRIPTS NOW HERE
The Grell Family is proud to announce the arrival of Mr. Walt Disney’s art school transcripts from the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts for the years 1917 and 1918.

After a four month request with the Illinois Board of Higher Education, Mrs. Diane Disney Miller, as legal heir, to Walt Disney authorized the release of Disney’s art school transcripts to the Grell Family. Thank you, Mrs. Diane Disney Miller and Byron Larson.

Ever since we can remember, our great Aunt Helen Grell Bellinger would tells us remarkable stories about our Uncle Louis, the famous artist. Dozens of Louis paintings were strewn about her home on Broadway in Council Bluffs, like an overcrowded museum. One story that sticks out, of course, is the one she would proudly tell about how Louis taught a young man by the name of Walt Disney. Aunt Helen was a very proud and old traditional German lady, not known for her exaggerated fairytale stories-she was an honest and sincere woman. She had many stories about Louis and each of her prized possessions hanging on the walls.

According to Aunt Helen Grell Bellinger(1898-1999), Louis was Walt Disney’s art instructor back in Chicago a long time ago. It turns out that Louis Grell was a very private artist and never wanted much attention and therefore it goes, that this story remained a family treasured secret-until now. Louie would talk about this to family on numerous occasions. He told Aunt Ruth Grell Applegate the same story. She remembers it well.

After doing a great deal of research, turning up many clues, we have been able to confirm that Louie did teach art, at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts from 1916-1922 and that Walt Disney did in fact take art classes at night, at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts in 1917 and 1918. According to Walt Disney Archives at Disney.com and emails, we can confirm this. Furthermore, the Disney Archives confirms that after World War I, “Walt returned to Kansas City, where he began his career as an advertising cartoonist.” According to American Art News, December 9, 1916, page 4, under the Chicago sub heading, the dean of the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts “engaged him (Louie) as instructor of decorative painting, to show how to make color a force in commercial illustrations and in advertising drawings.”

Is it safe to assume that Mr. Disney took advertising drawings courses before his first position as an advertising cartoonist-that is for you to decide?

We want to thank Byron Larson and Mrs. Diane Disney Miller for authorizing the release of Walt Disney’s art transcripts to the Grell Family.