Boardman retrospective - A lifetime in love with art

The late John Boardman was an architect by profession and an artist at heart. When he died at the end of 1999, he left behind sketch books filled with thousands of drawings few people have ever seen. He slept only a few hours each night and often was working on multiple pieces of art and architecture projects at the same time.

"He was always intrigued by something," says his wife, Evelyn.

A retrospective presenting 30 Boardman artworks opens today at Gallery 100. Opening today in the Lorimier Gallery will be "Concurrent Reliquaries," works by Joseph Osteraff of Provo, Utah.

A reception will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri, 119 Independence St. A tour of Boardman's architecture is scheduled Sunday (see calendar). Those who take the tour are eligible to win a Boardman still life to be given away.

Boardman's show was organized by his wife, who chose works from among hundreds in her possession. Her husband, a prolific architect, approached art the same meticulous way he designed buildings.

"Our whole lives revolved around aesthetics," she says.

He painted in various media and made sculptures in clay, wood and metal. He also made rugs and stained glass. Most of the rugs were made for the homes of architectural clients.

He especially liked Picasso and Modigliani along with the American artist Richard Diebenkorn, known for both figurative and abstract art. He was in love with Tchaikovsky's music.

Boardman was a clarinetist who kept his horn or a harmonica at the ready in his studio. "He grabbed his clarinet to think, or his harmonica," Evelyn says. "Whenever I heard one of them I always knew he was rethinking his painting."

In his later years, Boardman had coffee every Saturday with Rick Procter, a former art professor at Southeast and an artist who is much collected locally. "He could hardly wait until Saturday to go to coffee with Rick Procter," Evelyn said.

They always talked about art. Boardman wanted to know where Procter found his subject matter, how he approached the use of color. Some artists have a plan before they ever start painting, but Boardman was not one of those, Procter said.

He had put aside preconceived notions about whatever he was making was going to be.

"How would I know what I think until I see what I make? describes what John did," Procter said.

"... He was very dedicated to finding out what this paint, this material, this marble will reveal to him about himself and the way he sees things."

Boardman understood that art and buildings can't always be made by the book, Procter said. "John was interested in the subtleties of life, the subtleties of his perception and how he could use them to grasp visual realities."

Evelyn Boardman thinks her husband probably would have preferred being an artist rather than an architect. "But he knew he had to make a living," she said.

Shortly after Boardman's death, she received a bill for a 1,000-pound piece of stone he had ordered. She doesn't know what he intended to do with it. Probably, neither did he.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182