Artist + Muse

Snow Geese

Cathedral Forest

This touring exhibit is made possible in part by support from
Howard & Ann Dahl and Murphy LLLP.

The Rourke Art Gallery + Museum is pleased to present Artist + Muse: woodcuts by Charles Beck from the Timothy Murphy Collection, a touring exhibition of woodcut prints by the late artist Charles Beck (1923 - 2017) from the collection of the late poet Timothy Murphy (1951 - 2018).

The collection remains on semi-permanent loan to The Rourke Art Gallery + Museum thanks to the Murphy family and is currently on tour with the North Dakota Art Gallery Association. (full exhibition schedule below)

Murphy was an admirer and friend of Beck and derived both enjoyment and inspiration from his friend’s artwork. Murphy’s poem “Snowgeese” references and gives direct attribution to Beck’s iconic landscape of the same name:

Snowgeese
for Charles Beck

The flock is whorled like a translucent shell
and intricate as the tubing of a horn,
its embouchure, the soft foot of a snail
lighting on sand, except the sand is corn,
chisel sloughed and left to build the soil
from which indebted farmers have been torn.

I catch one note—a wild, wayfaring cry
as snow geese splash into a glacial mere.
Framed by moraines under a nacreous sky,
they echo in the chambers of my ear.
How does an ear rival your artist's eye
that sees what I can only hope to hear?

Reproduced images of Beck woodcuts are also featured in most of Murphy’s published collections of poetry.

The Exhibit

This exhibition comprises 24 Beck woodcuts and 6 Murphy poems on panel. It is currently on an 8-venue tour of the North Dakota Art Gallery Association through Summer 2024.

Bismarck Art & Galleries Association (11–28 July 2023)
Bismarck State College Galleries (13 August–23 September 2023)
Northwest Arts Center (5 October–16 November 2023)
James Memorial Art Center (4-29 December 2023)
Jamestown Arts Center (11 January–24 February 2024)
MonDak Heritage Center (1–27 April 2024)
Venue TBD (3 May–2 June 2024)
Pioneer Museum of McKenzie County and Long X Visitors Center (21 June–30 August 2024)