On View

Closed till January 28, 2025

Next: Diana Pumpelly Bates: Unity Revolution

The Natalie and James Thompson Art Gallery is pleased to present Diana Pumpelly Bates: Unity Revolution curated by Bridget R. Cooks.

Known for her bronze sculptures and metal public art visible throughout Northern California, Diana Pumpelly Bates, (MA 1987, MFA 1989) began her career as a painter and printmaker. In the 1960s, she explored themes of unity, beauty, and family in large-scale canvases and small prints. Pumpelly Bates’ curious forms express movement and energy. The unique, two-toned, chromatic pairing in each composition offers vibrations of color. From a distance, the silhouetted shapes appear as single forms. A closer look shows multiple elements united to make a whole. Based on her experiences of family formations and interpersonal relationships, Bates considers each painting a combination of the codes, secrets, impressions, nonsense, and beauty which life has given her.

As a student at SJSU in the 1980s, she developed her love for sculpture and spent most of her time in the art foundry where she distilled her interests in three-dimensional works inspired by natural forms.  Several of her works have become part of our shared visual culture through public commissions for public parks, rail stations, buildings, and other structures. Her smaller scale bronze work was inspired by the Bahá’í faith, African American literature, and Pumpelly Bates' everyday experiences. Diana Pumpelly Bates: Unity Revolution brings together the artist's painting, prints, and sculptural works for the first time. It is a refreshing exhibition of rediscovered selections, some of which have not been exhibited for over fifty years.

-Bridget R. Cooks, PhD
Guest Curator

This exhibition is supported by the College of Humanities & the Arts’ Artistic Excellence Programming Grant.