E-Catalogue
A Medieval Tapestry: The Ancestral Quest of Betty Herbert
| Childs Gallery is pleased to introduce the works of painter and sculptor Betty Herbert, American (b. 1929). This exhibition features works from her “Medieval Series,” interpreting events from the Middle Ages and inspired by her ancestral ties that trace back to the beginnings of Europe. Her family, the Herbertines, are direct descendants of Charlemagne through his legitimate son Pepin. The Carolingians were Frankish warrior rulers who played a great role in medieval France as fighters, leaders, and supporters of the arts. Betty Herbert’s direct line descends from Edward Herbert, Lord of Chirbury – noted seventeenth century scholar, warrior, philosopher, poet and former Ambassador to France (1619-1624). His brother George was the famous metaphysical poet. It is her lineage that affects her work and animates her sprit. It has enabled her to create a body of work inspired by and reflective of historical antecedents, and one that is simultaneously original and highly expressive. Betty Herbert is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (1951) and spent time as a wife and mother before beginning her vocation as an artist at the time of her husband’s illness in 1983. She received formal training in art at the Vermont Studio School and received a fellowship at the Dorland Mountain Arts Colony. The noted artist Archie Rand, was one of her teachers, and Betty Herbert fondly recalls how he instructed her to paint as she wished, and not as others would wish her to paint. She cites her influences as Goya, Nolde, Gaugin, Dürer, Morely, Hartley and Rand. (Harmony Hammond, and Malcom Morley as critics). The work of Betty Herbert has been approved for inclusion in the French collections by the “Conseil Artistique des Musées Nationaux” the official French agency that oversees the national museums in France. She is to be honored in an upcoming exhibition of her works on the First World War: Betty Herbert, un regard américain sur la Grande Guerre February 7 – April 27, 2008 at the Historial de la Grand Guerre, Pèronne, France on the River Somme, some 60 miles north of Paris. She has been featured in exhibitions at the Cannon Rotunda, Capital Hill, Washington, DC; the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, Virginia Beach, VA.; the Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH.; the Allan Stone Gallery, New York, NY; and the Portsmouth Art Museums, Portsmouth, VA. |
