BILL NEEDLE: A 50-YEAR RETROSPECTIVE

When Bill Needle began his painting "Christ Lives" in 1992, he intended it as a Christmas present for his daughter and son-in-law, a Presbyterian minister. Five years later, the painting, like many others that he has painted over the past fifty, remains a part of the collection that hangs in Needle's home.

"They'll get it some day," Needle says with a smile.

The painting will be part of an exhibition of Needle's work opening Friday, Dec. 5, at Gallery 100, 6 N. Sprigg St. The exhibition, "Bill Needle: A 50 Year Retrospective," will feature exclusively works created by Needle since his days as a junior in high school in Collinsville, Ill.

Although locally known more as an Egyptologist and an art historian -- he was a professor of art history at Southeast Missouri State University for thirty years -- Needle began his career in the art world as a painter. It is a part of his life that he has continued since taking up the brush 50 years ago, turning his home into his own private museum.

"He even has paintings hanging in his garage," said Greg Jones, executive director of the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri, which is sponsoring the exhibition.

"His garage is like an art gallery with two cars parked in it," Jones said.

Of all the paintings that Needle has done, the two that he talks most about are the two religious paintings that he created within the past five years -- "Christ Lives" and "The Last Supper."

The paintings are not unusual in their subject matter, but are unique in Needle's choices of models for the figures in the paintings. As he began "Christ Lives," the first of the two, he asked friends and neighbors to be models for the figures depicted in the paintings. Don McNeely, former television meteorologist, even modeled as one of the disciples.

"He was the weatherman and it was during the time of Hurricane Andrew, so I asked him to be St. Andrew," Needle said.

In both paintings, the faces of former students, friends and colleagues may be seen. And though he has shown the paintings only at his church, First Presbyterian, and a section of the church's chancel area may be seen in the painting, he insists on the ecumenical nature of the work.

"There are both Catholics and Protestants in it. I tell people it's not a Presbyterian painting, it's a Christian painting."

Over the years, he has given copies of the paintings to churches in six states to be used as a way of raising money for special projects the churches have, like building funds. The churches, in turn, may sell the prints, asking people for a donation of at least $100. Many people have given substantially more to own a copy of the print. One church in Kansas City made $22,000 in one night selling copies.

The religious paintings, though labors of love, were labors nevertheless. Unlike most other paintings he has done, which take him on average a month per painting to complete, one of the religious paintings took him twelve months to complete, the other over a year. And it wasn't always easy work.

"People say that painting must be relaxing, but I tell them it isn't for me. When I paint, I paint with a vengeance," he said.

In the retrospective, Needle will display not only the two religious works, but work that began with his oil depiction of cocker spaniel puppies that he copied as a high school junior from an Life magazine photograph.

His paintings from the late 40s include scenes from Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago. One of the paintings, a water color, was shown at the Norton Gallery of Art in Palm Beach, Florida when Needle was still a college student studying at Washington University's School of Fine Arts in St. Louis.

His paintings from the 1950s include scenes from California and portraits of family and friends. During that period, Needle experimented for the first time with gouache, a refined form of tempra paint that produces extremely realistic paintings.

In the 60s, he traveled to Europe and began a whole series of paintings from his travels. His favorite is of an eleventh century monastery in Ossias Loukas, Greece, a place where El Greco once painted. During the 70s he became involved with his Egyptian studies, finally traveling to the country in 1976. His paintings from that time reflect his growing interest in Egypt. That interest would continue throughout the 1980s.

The exhibit will be open to the public Monday through Friday, beginning Dec. 5 and running through the end of the month, from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. A reception for Needle will be held on Friday from 5 - 7 p.m. at the gallery.