Photo: Joe Rubino
Acclaimed Baltimore artist, MICA professor Timothy App dies
By Mary Carole Mccauley
Timothy App, a prominent abstract expressionist artist who taught at the Maryland Institute College of Art for nearly three decades, died Wednesday from cancer, his gallery said Thursday.
For five decades, App’s large-scale canvases, with forms that frequently evoked portals between different worlds, became a familiar sight on some of the nation’s most prestigious museum walls, including in Baltimore, where he spent his adult career, and in his native Akron, Ohio.
The 78-year-old Keswick resident died Wednesday following a long battle with his illness, according to Amy Eva Raehse, a partner at Baltimore’s Goya Contemporary Gallery, which has represented App for the past two decades.
“Timothy App’s unwavering pursuit of geometric clarity and spiritual balance made him a crucial voice in American abstraction,” Raehse wrote in a statement provided to The Baltimore Sun. “His paintings embody a serene rigor that reshapes how we understand order and perception.”
Baltimore writer Bret McCabe once wrote that App’s geometric abstractions with their subtle variations of form and color “evoke music.”
In 2013, a 45-year retrospective of App’s work was held at American University’s Katzen Arts Center in Washington.
App studied art as an undergraduate at Ohio’s Kent State University and later pursued graduate work at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art & Architecture in Philadelphia.
His work is part of the permanent collections of institutions ranging from the Baltimore Museum of Art to The Phillips Collection in Washington to the Akron Art Museum, Raehse wrote.
In addition, she said, App’s work has been featured in more than two dozen solo exhibits and numerous group shows. He taught at MICA for 27 years before retiring in 2017.
“His work radiates quiet conviction,” Raehse wrote, “as did he.”
When he wasn’t standing in front of a classroom or canvas, App was an avid fan of American folk music, which he played and sang. A lifelong history buff, he also participated as a Civil War reenactor for many years with the Third Maryland Volunteer Infantry and the National Regiment. So deep was his knowledge that he even taught a course at MICA on the American Civil War.
A die-hard felinophile, App also cherished his cat, Marcel.
He is survived by his wife, Theresa Lynch Bedoya, of Baltimore; daughter Jenna App and son-in-law Matthew Singer of Portland, Oregon; granddaughter Sophie App-Singer, of Portland; and sister Christine Smerick and brother-in-law Joseph Smerick, of Akron.
Raehse wrote that a memorial celebration and celebration of the artist’s life will be scheduled in the next few months.