Ulrich director says goodbye as the museum reopens with ‘Ulrich Redux’

Wichita State junior Michelle Calhoun saw professor Ron Christ’s paintings for the first time Saturday.

“I’m very astounded, quite inspired actually,” she said. “I have a greater understanding of art potential as (an) artist working under him.”

Many other people saw Christ’s lifetime of paintings during the reopening of the Ulrich Museum, too. The event came after months of renovation including a new heating and cooling system and refurbished galleries. One gallery currently boasts a collection of Gordon Parks and other photographers’ photographs of the Civil Rights era.

Calhoun, an art education major, took a watercolor class from Christ (pronounced crist), but remembers him as demanding.

“He gives very constructive criticism as a professor,” she said.

It was Patricia McDonnell’s last day and night as museum director after a five-year stint that oversaw the renovation, the Joan Miró mural being removed from the south side of the museum and sent off for repairs – a three-year effort – last spring, the fundraising to make it all happen and a significant increase in museum attendance.

“It’s a very emotional night,” she said. “I’m floating on a cloud for the achievement of this evening.”

McDonnell accepted the director’s position at the Wichita Art Museum (WAM). She has been working halftime at the Ulrich and halftime at WAM for the past few months.

“I’m eager for my future, and of course it’s emotional to leave such a fabulous team,” McDonnell said about leaving the Ulrich. “This is it.”

A search to replace McDonnell is underway.

Christ said he is “humbled” and “honored” to be the reopening’s featured artist. He also gave some amusing blame.

“It’s all Patricia’s fault this is happening,” he said. “Having it here where I’ve taught for 36 years, it’s the combination of one of the most important exhibitions of my life.”

Christ’s exhibit puts his paintings in chronological order. His first and his most recent (finished within a few weeks) and many in between hang in the gallery.

He describes his painting style as intentionally geometric, yet abstract in form.

“They’re thoroughly planned,” Christ said.

WSU theater graduate Shaun-Michael Morse played piano and sang a medley of Stephen Sondheim songs from “Sunday in the Park with George,” a musical inspired by a painting by Georges Seurat, titled “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jaffe.”

McDonnell described Christ as a “Sondheim nut.”

“Ron’s style is similar in a way, I’d say,” Morse said.

Specifically, he said the two artists blend and mix colors in a similar fashion.

The Ulrich is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. It is closed Mondays and holidays.