A 1991 graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute, Angela Dufresne paints loose figurative works that evoke works by seminal artists of 19th-century Europe and America, such as Thomas Cole and Frederick Church as well as French painters Jean Corot and Gustave Courbet. Dufresne manipulates idyllic scenes to rewrite history in her works. In this Kemper ARTcast, Lauren Park, Museum educator for school and family programs, asks how Dufresne's teaching informs her work and the urgency present within it. Dufresne also discusses how her painting, The lost fishing village of Diderot, Boucher, and Lorraine or the movie set of pioneer legacy (2009), may be "the ultimate manifestation of the enlightenment and the power of science and technology over the peasantry."
Dufresne divides her practice between studio work and teaching with equal passion and responsibility. She finds that working with young artists influences her own work, "I'm really interested in their relationship to being able to make something perfect – this mechanical reproduction that is a perfect simulacra versus the imperfection that I grew up with."
The Kemper Museum recently acquired Dufresne's painting that is on view at Kemper at the Crossroads in the Be Inspired! exhibition. Be Inspired! is on view at Kemper at the Crossroads, 33 W. 19th Street, Kansas City, Mo., through June 7, 2013.
Produced in collaboration with KCUR 89.3 FM, Kemper ARTcasts is the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art's podcast series. This project brings the voices and insights of artists, as well as community and curatorial voices, to a broad range of listeners.
