Steven Assael: Paintings and Drawings at Forum Gallery
Forum Gallery
March 19, 2009 – May 02, 2009
Review by Scott Goodwillie
If Rembrandt were alive today and had access to the colors available to the modern painter, his work may have looked like the masterpieces produced by one of the most popular figurative artists working today. Steven Assael has a new show of beautiful paintings and drawings up at the Forum Gallery, right down the street from TheGreatNude.tv studio.
Steven Assael has worked with the figure almost exclusively throughout his long career as a teacher and exhibiting artist. He has an innate ability to capture the intangible human essence of the person posing for him, and technically, he’s one of the few painters who can produce amazing landscapes of voluptuous and accessible flesh. Unbelievable realism on a large scale that transforms into visual poetry as you approach the canvas, with brush strokes that can be marvelous to ponder up close.
Steven Assael's "Figure Holding Glasses"
Most of the works in this show are large paintings of people posed in natural social situations, mostly clothed, but with faces that come alive on the canvas. Several nudes however are standout works in the show. A painting with the unassuming name “Figure Holding Eyeglasses” confronts you as you walk into the gallery. There is a lot to read into its average-looking sitter and what Assail has captured here. This is not an easy or pretty painting. A sad, haunted look resonates from this anonymous girl with a presence and body language which I can imagine being carried over into her everyday life. (In Assael’s best works, he seems to get at a deeper intangible of personality which sometimes has a nihilistic quality.) He captures something which certainly goes beyond “paint on canvas”. The fact that she remains unnamed only adds to this piece.
Steven Assael's "Jordana With Camera", a large pencil drawing.
In the large nude sketch of “Jordana Holding a Camera” you get a completely different feeling from the model. She’s certainly more confident than the girl in the painting and here again, it’s the ability to capture personality which not everyone is capable of. Assail is also a virtuoso with a pencil. These drawings actually seem to emanate light.
These large figurative works alone are reason to get over to the Forum Gallery to see a wonderful selection of masterful paintings from an artist who is doing some amazing work. The paintings and drawings of Steven Assael can be seen through May 2nd at Forum Gallery / 745 5th Ave New York City.
