The next exhibit in the Regier Art Gallery reflects a visual journey that spans more than seven decades.
“This is Bob: Student, Teacher, Artist” opens Sept. 25 in the gallery in Luyken Fine Arts Center that was named in honor of the artist at the center of the exhibit, Bob Regier.
The exhibit features dozens of artworks from Regier’s student days through his professional endeavors, including pieces from his personal files that have never been publicly displayed.
Curatorial team member Chuck Regier noted, “The 2002 Kauffman Museum exhibit ‘Eye of an Artist’ was a systematic look back through Bob’s creative career, a true retrospective. This exhibit was inspired by access to Bob’s personal files, mostly unframed work, much of it untitled or artist proofs.
“In discussing the exhibit with Bob, he envisioned it as more relaxed, with an unfinished, in-process feel.”
Regier, who lives in North Newton, is professor emeritus of art at Bethel.
“Certainly the greatest satisfaction comes when I sense that something in my work, whether it be pure visual language or shared visual experience, moves the viewer to a moment of heightened insight and awareness,” Regier said.
His student years started in the public schools in Mountain Lake, Minn., and included Bethel College, the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Illinois, where he earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1965.
Regier served as staff artist for Mennonite Central Committee and The Mennonite magazine, before joining the Bethel art department in 1965. Regier also taught at Hesston College, whose gallery is named for him and his contemporary, the late Paul Friesen.
At Bethel, he taught Introduction to Art along with printmaking and design classes until 1992, when he retired and was named professor emeritus of art.
During his Bethel years, Regier designed Kauffman Museum’s permanent exhibition “Of Land and People,” continuing after retirement as the museum’s senior design consultant.
Until just a few years ago, Regier continued to create art through printmaking and photography.
A curatorial team selected the artworks featured in “This is Bob”: Rachel Epp Buller, Bethel professor of visual arts and design, Glen Ediger, an artist and the retired director of design at Vornado, Inc., and Chuck Regier (no relation to Bob), retired Kauffman Museum curator of exhibits. Additional assistance came from Rachel Pannabecker, emeritus director of Kauffman Museum, and Steve and Gera Regier, Bob Regier’s son and daughter-in-law.
Ediger reflected, “Bob was my teacher, mentor and friend. He was influential in setting the direction of my career. I really learned to appreciate his attention to detail and I think of that every time I frame a new piece of my art.”
The exhibit also introduces the Bob Regier Legacy Collection at Kauffman Museum.
Art from the exhibit will be available for sale, with additional works in an online auction to be held following the close of the exhibit. Income from the sale will support the Legacy Collection and the Regier Art Gallery. For more information, go to ThisisBob.org or contact Chuck Regier (crregier@bethelks.edu).
“This is Bob: Student, Teacher, Artist” is on display in the Regier Gallery Sept. 25-Oct. 17. There will be an artist reception during Bethel’s Fall Fest, Oct. 16 from 6-7 p.m.
Regular gallery hours are Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sundays, 2-4 p.m. (extended hours during Fall Fest to include Saturday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.). There is no admission charge.
Bethel is a four-year liberal arts college founded in 1887 and is the oldest Mennonite college in North America. Bethel was the only Kansas college or university selected for the American Association of College & Universities’ 2021 Institute on Truth, Community Healing and Transformation, and has been named a TCHT Campus Center. For more information, see www.bethelks.edu
