Acclaimed North Carolina artist Ben Long, perhaps best known for frescoes he has created throughout the state, will be featured in a local exhibition, "Capturing the Essence: Portraits by Ben Long."
On view Oct. 11 through Feb. 3 at the Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the exhibition will display 14 portraits and figure studies by the Asheville-based artist, who was raised in Statesville.
On Oct. 12, Long will be one of two honorees to receive UNC's Distinguished Alumnus Award. The awards will be presented at UNC's annual University Day convocation, set for 9:30 a.m. in Hill Hall Auditorium.
The exhibition and the convocation will be free and open to the public.
Long painted his first fresco in 1974 in Beaver Creek. Others include one on the dome of the TransAmerica Building and one in the lobby of Bank of America's headquarters, both in Charlotte.
Long entered UNC in 1963 to pursue creative writing. He left one semester short of graduation to study painting. He attended the Art Students' League in New York, where he studied with Robert Beverly Hale and Frank Mason.
In 1967, Long went to Vietnam as a Marine infantry officer. After more than a year as a soldier, he became a military artist and then head of a combat art team, also in Vietnam.
Long then apprenticed with fresco artist Pietro Annigoni in Florence, Italy. While there, he learned techniques of fresco and taught himself to paint in oil. Today, he trains students in the classical tradition at his school, the Fine Arts League of Asheville.
For his frescoes and portraits, Long studies the human figure. He insists on working from life, never from a photograph. This requires long sittings for every drawing and painting.
"To draw from life is an ever learning process," Long says. "The more the artist seeks to deepen his understanding, the more he discovers himself. The more he reaches into the drawing, the more the line holds that energy into the fabric of time for others to feel."
"Capturing the Essence" highlights Long's ability to capture the personality of his sitters.
"While some artists only capture a likeness in their portraits, Long succeeds at providing viewers with insights into the sitter's character," says Ackland curator Cathy Keller-Brown. "In his drawings, some of which are studies for frescoes, the figures seem to emerge from the paper as palpable living and breathing beings. In his portraits, Long turns paint into flesh so that the two-dimensional canvas powerfully evokes the essence of the sitter."
The exhibition will be the second installment in "Carolina Collectors," a series of exhibitions at the Ackland that showcase the artworks of North Carolina collectors and of UNC alumni and associates nationwide. Three of the works on display are from the collection of 1969 graduate Peace Sullivan of New York City, an active member of the Ackland's National Advisory Board.
The Ackland opens from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and 1-5 p.m. Sundays. For more information, call 919-966-5736 (museum office) or 919-962-0837 (TTY), or visit the Web site at http://www.ackland.org.
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