Articulating an artistic reality

Murray Turnbull has spent his career
giving form to ideas

The title of Gallery Iolani's retrospective exhibit "Murray Turnbull: Visualizing the Invisible" expresses the accomplishments of Murray Turnbull that extend beyond simply the artistic realm.

The 42-year career educator not only taught his art students that "Art does not imitate life or replace nature -- it is not a substitute for some other reality. It is an equivalent reality." He also brought to fruition the vision of global exchange in his establishment of the East-West Center in 1961.

In fact, Turnbull throughout his career displayed the rare talent of being able to serve exceptionally both in administrative and creative realms. Turnbull served as chair of the Department of Art and Architecture twice, acting dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in 1958-59 and assistant to the president of the university as well as director of campus planning in 1965-67. The rest of his career was spent teaching students about the concerns he held as an artist.

"He worked to help students recognize that the eye was not the sole instrument of perception and understanding -- that images that originate in the mind are as valid as those that begin in the eye," writes exhibit curator Tom Klobe, director emeritus of the University of Hawaii Art Gallery, in the exhibit catalogue.

"Visualizing the Invisible" chronicles Turnbull's lifelong journey as an artist to do just that -- articulate ideas rather than represent the known world -- with pieces from the 1940s to those of last year.

"This exhibition expresses the passion Murray incorporates as an artist, working daily toward the next painting as if the task of being a painter will never be completed," says Toni Martin, director of Gallery Iolani and a former student of Turnbull.

"Visualizing the Invisible" continues through Feb. 29. Gallery hours are 1 to 5 p.m. Tuesdays to Fridays and on Sundays. Call 236-9155.