Sculptor John Mathews exhibits sculpture side by side with his father’s photography in an exhibition at Pennswood Village Art Gallery.
By: Jessica Loughery
When his father died in 1974, John Mathews was 17. Though Paul L. Mathews had been a professional photographer and John’s mother was an art teacher, the pursuit of an artistic career wasn’t even a glimmer in his eye at the time. "I showed very little interest in anything," he says. "I was a junior in high school."
Paul, originally from New Rochelle, N.Y., studied photography with Ansel Adams, Edward Weston and Minor White while a student at the California Institute of the Arts. He went on to be a freelance photographer in the ’50s and ’60s, shooting for LIFE and TIME magazines, as well as the General Electric company. When he died, he was living in White Plains, N.Y., where John spent most of his childhood.
After high school, John completed his undergraduate studies at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. It was during his freshman year there that he took a 3-dimensional design course and never looked back. He says he immediately asked the professor, "How do I get to do this for the rest of my life?"
Instructed to continue taking courses, John went on to graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania, obtaining a master’s degree in fine arts. He began teaching at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia immediately afterward, and is now assistant academic dean and professor of introductory sculpture at Bucks County Community College.
While teaching, John has continued to pursue his interest in 3-dimensional art through sculpture. His work has been exhibited in juried shows in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Washington, D.C. Locally, he participated in an exhibition at Grounds For Sculpture in Hamilton in 1998, and one at the Woodmere Art Museum in Germantown in 2000. Earlier this year, he had the chance to show a number of sculptures with his father’s photographs at Chandler Hall in Newtown.
"It’s something I’ve thought about (doing)," John says, "And it came to fruition because of my work developing to the point where I saw connections."
The show, Like Father Like Son?, has moved to Pennswood Village Art Gallery in Newtown, Pa., where it will continue through Feb. 4. Six sculptures, mostly from the past six years, and 25 photographs from the ’50s and ’60s are on display.
"This space is more of a gallery space and I like the intimacy of it," John says. "You walk into the room and it’s all there. It’s less sculpture but because it’s a smaller space the pieces will have an impact and certainly participate with the 25 photographs on the wall."
Both photographs and sculpture have been arranged to encourage such visual participation. For example, John’s 2005 sculpture "Cradle" is positioned just under Paul’s "Oil Worker." The former is a long piece of steel rounded into a short spiral that holds up a yellow glass ball. The accompanying photograph of a worker descending a ladder is shot downward through a metal or steel encasement designed to keep climbers from falling off.
A second sculpture, completed in 2006 and titled "Royal John," similarly involves steel winding around to cradle a blue marble ball, then winding up into three shower-head-like extensions. Paul’s "Rig, Rio Grande" shows a visually comparative image of the piping and chains of an old machine covered in what appears to be white paint.
In part because he shot for General Electric, many of Paul’s photographs show machinery and metal equipment. All incorporate clearly intentional composition of objects and an obviously delicate balance of light. "I know from being on shoots that light was critical in his work," John says. "It wasn’t only light in the sense of natural light. He would go in the dark room and manipulate light with time exposure."
Paul’s photographic treatment of the object and use of material are, for John, two significant connections between the two bodies of work. "I’m obsessed with object making," he says. "It’s a love of making things and materials and manipulating them and using tools."
Most of his sculptures were created with found objects. In putting them together, John focuses on the process of manipulating and organizing objects to create meaning. In his artist statement, he writes, "The sources of inspiration for my sculpture are the inherent properties in materials and processes as well as everyday naturalistic phenomena."
John also considers use of space in comparing his sculpture with his father’s photography. "I think that’s one of the things I got from him," he says. "I consider sculpture the ultimate use of space and certainly that’s much more difficult to depict and use in a photograph as it’s easy to not pay attention because you know it’s a flat surface. It’s already in front of you so you figure it will take care of itself.
"I believe we both have a very strong sense of composition," he continues. "And it reveals itself in similar ways if you look at how his pictures are cropped and his use of space in the photograph and then, of course being a sculptor, my use of space and the way I define it as you move around the piece."
Despite the artistry apparent in both Paul’s commissioned and non-commissioned works, his work has not been shown before this year. "Photography was not something accepted in the manner of being looked at as fine art," John explains. "(My father) had the luxury of being able to just take pictures of what he wanted to take, at a time when photography was not something (people) wanted to purchase and collect."
Luckily, the photography has remained completely within the family, and the works on display are all on loan from John and his siblings’ personal collections. Taking a step back from his own work and comparing it to the photographs of his father has allowed John to make conclusions about the artistic inclinations of a father and son. In an explanation for the show he writes, "The purpose of this exhibition is to demonstrate if my father, Paul Mathews, was a sculptor he would fabricate works similar to mine, John Mathews. And if I were a photographer I would make work similar to his."
Like Father Like Son?, featuring sculpture by John Mathews and photography by his father, Paul L. Mathews, will be on view at Pennswood Village Art Gallery, 1382 Newtown-Langhorne Road, Newtown, Pa., through Feb. 4. Gallery hours: Daily 9 a.m.-8 p.m. For information, call (215) 968-9110.