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Osbun comes north of the border for show

Retired Wittenberg art professor now lives and paints in Mexico

Retired Wittenberg University art professor Jack Osbun, who now lives and paints part-time in Mexico, will be the subject of two local shows.

Staff file Retired Wittenberg University art professor Jack Osbun, who now lives and paints part-time in Mexico, will be the subject of two local shows.

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By Andrew McGinn, Staff Writer Updated 7:47 PM Thursday, August 20, 2009

SPRINGFIELD — Painter Jack Osbun was on the board of directors at the Springfield Museum of Art when the museum expanded to its current size.

“I’ve been very desirous to have a show in that new space,” he explained.

It’s only taken him 15 years to get there.

“One never quite feels that they’ve arrived,” Osbun, now 72, confessed. “I always thought, ‘Next year, I’ll approach somebody.’ That’s the Mexican manana syndrome.”

Well, he finally did it — Osbun will open a retrospective at the Cliff Park Road museum this weekend. Most of the show’s 86 works are inspired by his part-time residency in Mexico.

You’ll see landscapes, Day of the Dead skulls, Virgin Mary forms and mermaids, a staple of Mexican folk art.

But wait. Like a man who can see El Paso from across the Rio Grande and no border guards in sight, Osbun is seizing this opportunity.

He’ll also exhibit more recent work at Wittenberg University, where he spent 34 years teaching art.

“I was always interested in the ancient cultures of Mexico,” Osbun said. “As I’ve grown more and more knowledgeable, that interest has spread into the contemporary.”

He can’t help but think of Mexico in the present sense — he keeps a studio in San Miguel de Allende (well, that, and his wife is from Mexico).

Osbun, who retired from Witt in 2000, could’ve just as easily have become an archeologist. That’s what attracted him to Mexico in the first place.

“Mexico,” he said, “was a lot more accessible than Egypt.”

How to go

What: “Jack Osbun, a 40-Year Retrospective: In Search of Significant Form”

Where: Springfield Museum of Art, with “Jack Osbun, Work of the Last Year: The Search Continues” at the Ann Miller Gallery of Wittenberg University’s Koch Hall.

When: The museum show opens with a members reception from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 22, then runs through Oct. 3 (closed Mondays). The Witt show opens Monday and runs Mondays through Fridays through Sept. 25.

Cost: $5 for museum; free for Witt exhibit

More info: (937) 325-4673

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