Primitive-style artist Carole Wantz of St. Louis mentioned three months ago that her latest exhibition at the Indiana State Museum in downtown Indianapolis already was providing her a chance to reconnect with old Columbus friends she had long ago lost touch with.
It hardly has hurt much that The New York Times Style Magazine and other media outlets recently have reawakened the public to her works done in the folksy style of Grandma Moses.
A public reception for her show “The Artwork of Carole Wantz: Collected Stories from Columbus, Indiana,” will be from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday in the museum’s Thomas A. King Bridge Gallery.
Organizers expect more than 150 people, including former Cummins Inc. executives and other community leaders, to attend. Wantz’s family also is expected to be on hand.
The exhibition, which runs through July 27, highlights 30 of her paintings done for executives and others from 1975 to 1985 when she lived in Columbus.
Landmark Columbus Foundation Executive Director Richard McCoy, the show’s curator who worked for several years tracking down some of 81-year-old Wantz’s commissioned works for locals, understands that the painter’s pieces are unique.
“The power of Carole’s art is really impressive in the joy and beauty it communicates,” he said.
He added that he decided to help facilitate a show of Wantz’s paintings when he first saw it a few years ago.
“I follow my instincts,” McCoy said. “There just seemed to be a lot really good, positive energy in them. The best of art, architecture and design is usually filled with a lot of positive energy.”
Wantz herself, still an active artist, called the attention focused on the exhibit “humbling.” In several recent interviews, she recalled how nervous she was showing late Cummins chairman and philanthropist J. Irwin Miller a painting she did for him in her trademark manner — with scenes and symbols from his life and work. Yet, since then, that visual storytelling style of her work has been in demand.
At the reception, McCoy is expected to speak briefly, as is Mark Ruschman, the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites’ senior curator of art and history. Wantz is expected to say a few words, too.
She is known for her charm and humor as much as her talent and creativity. Not to mention a disarming meekness in a realm of sometimes sizable egos.
In an interview in the spring with The Republic, she was asked when she realized she had made it in the art world.
“Well,” she said, “I’ve never really thought I have.”
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What: The exhibition “The Artwork of Carole Wantz: Collected Stories from Columbus, Indiana.”
When: 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday.
Where: The Thomas A. King Bridge Gallery at the Indiana State Museum, 650 W. Washington St. in downtown Indianapolis.
For attendees: Appetizers and beverages.
Register to attend: https://artworkofcarolewantz.eventbrite.com
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