Christine Marie Taber (1968-2000) was curated by UB Art Department Associate Professor David H. Schirm as a tribute to Christine Taber, a University at Buffalo graduate who was tragically killed in a traffic accident immediately following her first major solo exhibition in 2000. Taber’s early paintings were “alive with color and were created with the touch of an artist, a natural gift you look for in a student,” recalls Schirm. “The last works I remember seeing before she left UB were alive with lush fields of incredibly intense color. I thought that if she could hook all this up with a more specific link to content, she would find herself at a new beginning to her discoveries.”
After Taber moved to Los Angeles to attend graduate school at the University of Southern California, Schirm was “stunned” to see how Taber’s work had been affected by her studies and environment. He asks, “Who would have guessed all of her luscious color would leave her paintings? It was the same Chris in the handling of the paint, but these paintings seemed to touch a different part of her personality.” They expressed a desire to slow down movement in an environment that was moving too quickly. In a sense [her paintings] are photographs frozen, the color removed so that we can reconsider the speed of our lives and the temporary nature of all this stuff whizzing around us.”
Curated by David Schirm.