Mellencamp painting show is curatorial training ground for Eskenazi students

Source: IndyStar

You may know John Mellencamp the rock star, but now you'll have a chance to meet John Mellencamp the painter, thanks to a new exhibit on IU Bloomington's campus.

"Crossroads: The Paintings of John Mellencamp" is on display at the The Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art through Dec. 15.

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"Since the 1970s, when he arrived in New York City to pursue a career in music and art, Mellencamp has created works of art that express a conflicted view of America, especially the plight of Americans living in the Midwest who have felt abandoned and overlooked," the museum said in an early-August news release.

The paintings featured in the exhibition explore themes like relationships, politics, outsiders, sociopolitical commentary and small-town life. Born in Seymour, Mellencamp still works and lives in Bloomington. He also owns a gallery and antique shop in the college town called Antiquated Fine Arts.

Although Mellencamp is known for hits like "Crumblin' Down," "Small Town," "Rain On The Scarecrow," "Lonely Ol Night," "R.O.C.K. In The U.S.A.," "Check It Out" and "Cherry Bomb," he is also an artist who creates oil portraits and mixed-media pieces that "(reveal) unsettling but beautiful truths with a kind of anti-establishment frown, with a rich sense of narrative," according to Mellencamp's website.

The museum cited German Expressionist Max Beckmann, Austrian Secessionist Egon Schiele, Walt Kuhn, Jack Levine, Robert Rauschenberg and Jean-Michel Basquiat among those who influenced Mellencamp's work.

The exhibition was organized in part by students who participated in a spring 2024 course called "Public Art and Collaboration" taught by David A. Brenneman, a director at the museum, and Caleb Weintraub, a professor of painting at the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design.

"IU students and our Bloomington community will have a unique opportunity to see a thought-provoking body of work that connects them with a sense of place, specifically the Midwest," Brenneman said in a written statement.

See John Mellencamp's paintings at IU Art Museum

"Crossroads: The Paintings of John Mellencamp" is open now and runs through Dec. 15. You can find it in the museum's first-floor featured exhibitions gallery.

The Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art is located on the IU Bloomington campus at 1133 E. 7th St. The galleries are open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and Sunday noon to 5 p.m. Galleries are closed Monday.