In Oberling case, does art survive the artist?

By CHRIS PETERSON

Hungry Horse News

The Nick Oberling case has also created ripples across the local art world, with his art taken off walls in some venues and shows that were scheduled for 2023 put on hold.

Oberling, the renowned Hungry Horse landscape painter was well established — and well-liked — in the art community.

In July, Oberling was accused of trying to electrocute his significant other while she took a shower at the couple’s Hungry Horse home on July 24.

He allegedly hot-wired the soap dish to a cord and then plugged it into an electrical outlet, shocking his female partner.

Just two days before, Oberling was at his studio, posing for photos for the Hungry Horse News as he worked on the finishing touches of a painting for a plein air paint-out of the Flathead River.

By that Monday, he was in jail, charged with criminal endangerment in the case.

Oberling and the woman opened a studio together in Hungry Horse in 2016.

n a 2016 story in the Hungry Horse News, he said they met while he working in the John L. Clarke Gallery in East Glacier. She was coming off a hike up Scenic Point and stopped into the gallery about five minutes before it was to close. She bought a couple of Oberling’s works and the two hit it off.

Because this is a domestic violence case, the Hungry Horse News has not revealed her name in this story.

The couple bought the Dam Canyon Gift Shop next to the Baptist Church in May of 2016 and remodeled it into an art gallery and studio.

By then, Oberling was well-established in the Glacier Park art community. He’d been painting the park for about 18 years. In 2014 he completed a three-year project where he packed into the wilderness regions of Glacier and painted backcountry scenes plein air. Prior to the project, many of the scenes had never been painted before.

Oberling studied art formally at the Art Students League in New York, New York.

His work has been shown throughout the U.S. and he was on the Hockaday Museum of Art board of directors in Kalispell for 11 years.

Oberling’s work is also part of the permanent collection at the museum. Prior to the criminal charges, his work was displayed in the museum as part of the collection, but since then, the museum has decided to take it down, said executive director Alyssa Cordova in a recent interview.

Cordova said his art was removed in light of the situation and “sensitivity to his partner.”

But it’s a challenging subject, Cordova said.

“Unfortunately, these stories are nothing new to the art world,” she said.

In 1985, for example, famed sculptor Carl Andre was accused of pushing his wife, Ana Mendiet out of their skyscraper window in New York City.

Three years later, he was charged with her murder, but was acquitted in a jury trial.

“Can you separate art from the artist?” Cordova asked.

She believes that, over time, one can.

“Good art can come from bad people,” Cordova said.

Past local artists have also had rocky relationships. The late Ace Powell, another famous Hungry Horse artist, for example, had four wives (three ended in divorce, one died of natural causes).

The Hockaday had planned a solo exhibit of Oberling’s work this summer. That has been put on permanent hold, Cordova said.

Artist Tammy Phillips, who also has a gallery in Kalispell, Phillips Studio and Gallery, also planned an Oberling exhibit in 2023.

That, too, has been put on hold.

“We’re kind of in a holding pattern,” Phillips said. “We’re going to wait and decide (after) sentencing.”

According to court documents, that plea agreement could very well see Oberling get no additional jail time, as it calls for a deferred sentence in the case.

Oberling has been in the Flathead County Detention Center since he was arrested.

Oberling’s Hungry Horse gallery has since been closed and the art that once hung on the walls has been taken down.

As far as the future, perhaps only time will tell.

Locally, Oberling’s artwork is bound to stand on its own no matter what. A huge mural he did for Freedom Bank in Columbia Falls stands above the teller booths.

Bank President Don Bennett said the bank has no plans to take it down.

“It’s beautiful artwork,” Bennett said.

Art outlasts the artist?

“I agree. I think art will outlast the artist,” Bennett said.