Skip to Main Content

Frank Moore: Green Thumb in a Dark Eden

Saturday, February 1, 2003Sunday, April 20, 2003

Installation view of Frank Moore: Green Thumb in a Dark Eden. Photograph by Biff Henrich.

1905 Building

Frank Moore’s paintings tell stories and deal with real life issues. They can be humorous on the one hand, serious and unsettling on the other. In them, fantasy and reality commingle. Moore’s paintings, which range in size from monumental to intimate, combine personal confession with social activism. It is entirely appropriate that the Albright-Knox hosted this exhibition originally organized by the Orlando Museum of Art, Florida given the artist's strong family ties to Buffalo. The Niagara Falls series, well represented in the exhibition, is rooted in Moore's childhood memories — the sense of wonder and beauty that he experienced at the Falls. Niagara, a stellar work in the museum’s collection, not only reflects this youthful sense of wonder, but the artist's concern and preoccupation with environmental and healthcare activism, what he describes as “an ecology of health.”

On February 1, Curator Doug Dreishpoon moderated a panel paying tribute to Frank Moore’s life and art. Moore had passed away on April 27, 2002, after tirelessly working on the planning and execution of this exhibition. The panel featured Steven Biltekoff, Jane Hammond, Rebecca Moore, and Sue Scott.

This exhibition was organized by the Orlando Museum of Art, Florida and Curator Douglas Dreishpoon.