Inaugural artist-in-residence to open show At Farnsworth House

Throughout the past year, artist Joel Sheesley painted the Farnsworth House and surrounding landscape en plein air, deftly capturing the dramatic juxtaposition of Modernist architecture with the natural world.

The work he created is featured in “Less (and) More: Modernism Greets the River Landscape,” an exhibition of Fox River landscape paintings that give viewers a greater sense of the land and environment in which the Farnsworth House is situated.

Farnsworth House and co-host The Conservation Foundation invite the public to attend the free opening of this exhibition from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday, July 11. At 2:45 p.m. Sheesley will discuss his experiences and work of the past year before viewing of the exhibition. About 3:30 p.m., Sheesley will sign copies of his book, “A Fox River Testimony.” This book features more than 70 of his paintings of the Fox River. It was published in 2017 in partnership with The Conservation Foundation. Copies of the book are limited so advance purchase for July 11 pickup is suggested. Visit the Farnsworth House Museum Shop online at farnsworthhouse.org to reserve a copy for signing. After July 11, the exhibition may be seen with the purchase of a guided tour ticket. This program is supported in part by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

“Initially, I planned only to paint the river landscape around the Farnsworth House, Shelley said, “but my curiosity drove me to the house itself as a kind of lens through which to view the surrounding land. Once inside, I found the dual voices of Mies van der Rohe and Edith Farnsworth, represented in architecture and furnishings respectively, and together these influenced my perception of the landscape. Mies framed the view, but Edith qualified it with human presence.”

Sheesley is a painter and the inaugural artist-in-residence at Farnsworth House for 2020-21. His current work addresses the local northeastern Illinois landscape. In 2017, he began a three-year project under the auspices of The Conservation Foundation to paint landscapes of the Fox River Valley. This work was exhibited at Aurora University’s Schingoethe Center.

Sheesley is a professor emeritus at Wheaton College where he taught painting for 42 years. Sheesley’s work has been exhibited widely and in 2020 he was inducted into the Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame. He lives in Wheaton.