Resting on Quilts, Akhriev

Every year, the Atlanta Gallery Association presents a three week visual festival bringing together Atlanta’s top cultural institutions and galleries. Set at the amazing Buckhead Mansion, also known as the “Pink Palace”, the house is filled with painting, sculpture and photography by local galleries, which in turn draws collectors, local politicians and business leaders. I’m sure more than a little champagne flows as well. And why not? At this point in time it’s good to focus on our higher artistic aspirations as a kind of national dialogue.

To this end, the late figurative master Frederick Hart is honored by Art House with a sculpture garden featuring works from the National Cathedral Collection. Among the galleries exhibiting will be the Atlanta Art Gallery with the knowledgeable and friendly owner Bill Dixon on hand to answer questions. Several of his artists will be showing nude figurative paintings. Anthony Akrill’s offering, “Funeral for a Dream” is a strong work with excellent chiaroscuro and a masters understanding of anatomy.

Anthony Akrill's "Funeral for a Dream"

“Sarah Resting” by Juliette Aristides is a beautiful study in strong color yet with a softness of form. Her use of two light sources adds drama to what would otherwise be a melancholic pose.

Juliette Aristides' "Sarah-Resting"

If you are in Atlanta during this event, make sure to stop by and support the arts, I hear they will be serving some pretty good food as well so you can fulfill all your senses!

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Blush, on view at the Florench Lynch Gallery

Guess whose coming to dinner? She’s big, she’s bold and she’s beautiful and has a way of staring at you that you don’t mess with. The new painting “Blush” by Australian artist Annette Bezor at the Florence Lynch Gallery in Chelsea just might prove the axiom that size does indeed matter. When you stand in front of a large Bierstadt or one of Frederic Church’s paintings, they take you in with an all encompassing embrace. Being in front of this work is a more disquieting experience – what the shows catalog describes as having your voyeurism exposed.

In the process of lifting her leg to reveal her genitalia she stares out at the viewer in a manner which tells you she’s done this plenty of times before and doesn’t care what you think. There’s a difference between nude and naked and this is absolutely the latter! A comparison has been made to the hollow gaze of Manets’ “Olympia” Looking at the two works, yes the eyes are hollow, but that’s where the similarity ends. Olympia seems tired of us and covers herself with her left hand while Bezor’s gal is more catlike. The pose of the foot and the clasped hands tell us this, maybe she’s waiting for us to make a move, but her movement has already begun. Her look is not as benign, as if anyone with hollow eyes can be benign.

The title of the work is “Blush” and I’m damn sure it doesn’t refer to the model in her outsized nakedness, but rather how it catches us off guard when first encountering it. Do we come in close to take it all in, inch by inch? Or maintain a polite distance while being ever followed and dared by those judgmental eyes. Bezor succeeds in pulling the rug out from under our feet.

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An iconic male figure in metal wire

Sometimes when looking through various art publications, I will find something which makes my heart race and I feel as if I have discovered someone new. It’s the aesthetic version of the Wow Factor. Of course in the case of Korean artist Seungmo Park, it’s only a discovery for me, as he has been exhibiting his aluminum wire sculptures for some time now throughout Asia.

There is a lot of spiritual meaning informing Parks work so I’ll try to be brief. Following a personal path through Zen Buddhism, and a fascination with Tibetan mandalas, he seeks out everyday images, generally creations of man, and even humankind itself. These in turn become subject matter which he sculpts and forms into a plastic resin maquette. Upon this armature he then begins the laborious process of coiling thin gleaming aluminum wire. The finished piece has a beauty which catches the light while at the same time resembling a resonating fingerprint. Plenty of metaphors to be had in that!

He likens this technique to creating a mandala in which artistic flow takes over thought in a meditative way. Unlike a mandala, these sculptures thankfully are not wiped away, and are allowed to have a presence of their own which we can appreciate. I say presence of their own because he is very aware of the illusion of the created world much the same way Magritte created the famous little painting of a pipe upon which he wrote “this is not a pipe”. I always took this as a bit of tongue and cheek humor, but Parks dedication to philosophical ideal is quite sincere.

More can be read at the link below, as I mentioned it’s an extensive but thoroughly fascinating look at an experience which had a profound effect on his life and the artwork he produces.

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One of Pearlsteins transitional works from 1965

A rarified handful of artists in history are known for full variations in personal style and technique, think Picasso, which style fit him best? All. Most of us go through experiments and variations while only having one which publicly defines us and by which all our other work is judged. So it’s nice to see this new offering of Philip Pearlstein’s work in such an encompassing way. I’ve always liked his “signature style” even though it often felt claustrophobic and gave me pangs of anxiety. Where do I start to look in one of his paintings and where the hell can I rest my eye?

Interesting how what seems so common now was initially viewed as a daring step in his career. He was already in his late thirties by the time he settled on depicting the nude – stripped bare if you will – of all encumbering luggage and meaning. Certainly no intimacy, no matter how close you are to the figure. It was a body in the age of Minimalism. Not classically painted, but in a definitive way which was unmistakably his. His figures were arranged in a closely cropped rectangles, and the flesh handled with layers of painted tone – like strata examined in a geological survey. His use of color never varying much in tonality – a red rug has as much validity as the model seated upon it. This is the Pearlstein as we know him.

What’s so enjoyable and surprising to see in this exhibit are the paintings that show Pearlstein experimenting with various styles, such as his intense expressionist depiction of superman with such turbulent brushstrokes. I’m ready to attach my carriage to it and go for a ride. Always have been more a fan of realism, but some of these paintings just feel fun, not just in subject matter but the way they’re rendered.

So while I understand the critics need to point to the singular contribution he has made to art history, I’m happy to see the many roads he could have taken but decided not to. Its a process all artists can understand. Intimately.

On view at the Montclair Art Museum , Montclair, New Jersey – through Feruary 1st 2009

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