Ron Kroutel always knew he would be an artist. Everyone else said so.
As the son of European immigrants, he grew up with parents who valued culture and education, despite not having much access to it themselves. To them, Kroutel said, becoming an artist was as impressive as becoming a brain surgeon. His classmates told him he was talented, too, even after an incident of public shaming by a nun for making a drawing of an apple tree too life-like.
“I always was interested in it and always drew and was encouraged,” Kroutel said. “Nobody ever said, ‘That’s not gonna get you anywhere, Ronnie.’”
Kroutel moved to Athens in 1966 from inner-city Detroit, Michigan, happy to leave the urban environment for the green hills of Southeast Ohio. For 50 years, he lived and taught in Athens at the Ohio University’s School of Art and Design. Now, he is saying goodbye.
Kroutel, an OU Professor Emeritus of Art, moved to Colorado recently. He enjoys his time in the mountains but said he left Athens in a way he felt was incomplete.
“For 50 years, the area has been supportive and a rich source for me,” he said. “So when I left, I just felt that I’m leaving all this that meant so much to me, and there isn’t any sort of finale or ending to it.”
When Kroutel expressed that lack of closure and a wish for a final Athens art show to his longtime friend Rajko Grlić, an Ohio University Eminent Professor of Film, Grlić took it to heart. Now, nearly two years later, the project is coming to fruition and Kroutel is giving his final goodbye and thank-you to Athens.
The exhibit “50 Year Journey: Ron Kroutel Paintings” opens Friday night at the Kennedy Museum of Art. It will feature 36 of Kroutel’s works, from small black-and-white drawings to large vibrantly-colored paintings arranged to show five major steps in his personal artistic journey.
Grlić, the guest curator for the exhibit, carefully selected each of the works from the many Kroutel produced during his long career. The two met nearly 30 years ago after discovering their shared European roots, and Grlić said after spending enough time in Kroutel’s studio, he began to see Athens from the painter’s perspective.
“Somehow I began to look around here … through the eyes of his paintings,” he said. “It became my way of seeing things. So when he decided to move after 50 years, I think that he deserved to be honored in some way.”
Among the exhibited paintings are several landscapes inspired by venues in Athens County. They are altered and exaggerated, but all of them are grounded in life. Grlić’s personal favorite is one of those, which he will display at the end of the gallery. He said the piece somehow ties the many local scenes Kroutel created together.
“It’s very rare that you can see the landscape, the houses (and) the roads where you are living through the eyes of one excellent painter,” Grlić said.
Kroutel misses his time in Athens and the many good friends he made. But as he has seen his retrospective exhibit come together, he hasn’t felt nostalgia. Instead, he is simply happy to share his life’s work with others.
“I think my motivation, even as a kid, was never to show off,” he said. “Maybe ego was in there, but I would just say it was the desire to share what I thought was interesting or good. I don’t feel pride necessarily … I’m just glad I can share it.”
