Being at The Jewish Museum in New York two weeks ago to see the "Chagall: Love, War, and Exile" show brought back memories of the last time I was at the museum. And that led to memories of another show. A powerful show will do that. The Chagall show is incredible--moving and haunting-- and I will write about it on another day. If you are in New York between now and February 2nd, be sure to see the show.
Meanwhile, back to the shows that I have been revisiting in my mind after being at The Jewish Museum........
The experience of seeing "Picasso: The Cubist Portraits of Fernande Olivier" at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, was everlasting. Ten years later and I wish I could stand before those pieces and have that feeling again, the moment of exhalation in front of a piece after recovering from the first glance which had taken my breath away.
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| book from the National Academy exhibition-available via Barnes & Noble here |
About the show, the National Academy published:
"Between spring and fall 1909, Picasso produced more than 60 portraits of his companion, Fernande Olivier, in a variety of formats and mediums. In its intense devotion to a single subject, the series is virtually unprecedented in the history of portraiture. Powerful and melancholic, these portraits are among the most compelling in the history of modern art. This exhibition brings together some 50 of the related works, revealing Picasso's exploration of cubism and his radical reformulation of human physiognomy."
KEY WORDS: "radical reformulation of human physiognomy". Experiencing the beauty of another human, a woman loved by the artist, presented in this style was new to me and a bit uncomfortable at first. Breathtaking yet uncomfortable and then mesmerizing, beguiling, wonderful.
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| Pablo Picasso Portrait of Fernande, Horta de Ebro OIl on Canvas |
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| Pablo Picasso Standing Female Nude Watercolor on Paper |
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| Pablo Picasso Bust of a Woman portrait of Fernande Olivier |
I remember where I was, who I was with, and what I said when I saw this piece:
"WHOA! She's so beautiful. Is it Jackie Kennedy?" Completely taken, I listened as it was explained that this was by Alex Katz and the woman is his wife, Ada. The sight of "Ada in Hat" was shortly after the National Academy Picasso exhibition visit.
In 2006, The Jewish Museum in New York mounted an unbelievable show, "Alex Katz Paints Ada". Again, just as in recollection of the Picasso show, my memory is so clear as I recall spending a couple of hours in the museum taking in each piece. Standing back, moving closer, focusing on a small portion of a painting, then all of it.
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| exhibition catalog of "Alex Katz Paints Ada" available from The Jewish Museum here |
About the show, The Jewish Museum's statement said:
"For almost fifty years, the American painter Alex Katz has painted a series of portraits of his wife, Ada. These paintings have attained an iconic status and are unprecedented in their focus on a single figure over so many decades. Katz's portraits of Ada also raise fascinating questions about his methods and intentions: How much do these paintings reveal and how much do they conceal about their subject? How does the artist convey such vitality on his canvases? And how does Katz's work fit into the history of portraiture and the art movements of the 1960s and beyond?
This fall The Jewish Museum will present Alex Katz Paints Ada, an exhibition of 40 paintings dating from 1957 to 2005. As the art historian Irving Sandler wrote in 1998, Ada "is woman, wife, mother, muse, model, sociable hostess, myth, icon, and New York goddess." The exhibition includes formal portraits, group scenes, and small paintings depicting Ada with husband Alex and son Vincent, and Ada in social and outdoor settings. To view this enthralling body of work is to understand the cycles of daily life and and the continual self-examination and reinvention of the relationship between a great artist and and his lifelong muse."
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| Alex Katz Ada and Vincent, 1967 |
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| Alex Katz Blue Umbrella #2, 1972 |
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| Alex Katz Black Scarf, 1996 |
Whether cubism or realism, the love of figurative work and portraiture was born. And it continues.
Sometime soon after experiencing the Katz show, I saw this image in Elle Decor:
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| Steven Stolman's Palm Beach condo with Sally Michel painting over the sofa-image via Elle Decor |
The room is well designed, interesting, pretty. But it's the painting to which my eye is immediately drawn. I learned that the artist is Sally Michel, the wife of Milton Avery. Neither cubism nor realism, this piece of a woman lounging with her bushy tailed cat is whimsical. Colorful, bold, abstract with the face left unfinished.
Here is an example of another Sally Michel piece:
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| Sally Michel John at Tea Time Oil on Panel 24" x 18" via Loucks Gallery, Glencoe, IL www.loucksgallery.com |
A piece from the permanent collection of MOMA:
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| Elizabeth Peyton John & Jackie Lithograph from permanent collection of MOMA, New York image via moma.org |
and an image that I know nothing about except it is fantastic:
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| Elizabeth Peyton painting--image via Habitually Chic blog |
In July of 2010, I visited the studio of Provincetown painter Cynthia Packard and saw these figurative pieces. HELLO! Moody. Deep. Dark. Seductive. And by an artist whose work I can specify for a client. And I did. "My Room" lives in the study of a Lafayette, LA, client.
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| "My Room" by Cynthia Packard. Mixed Media Figurative Collage. Now in collection in Lafayette, LA. |
More on Cynthia in part 2 of this post.
That same Summer in Provincetown, I met Laurence Young. I loved his work and selected a piece for the same Lafayette client who has Cynthia Packard's piece. I met with Laurence at his studio and was immediately blown away by this piece:
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| LAURENCE YOUNG Back Stitch Oil/ Wax on Canvas, framed 24" x 18" $ 2,000.00 available from Laurence Young www.laurenceyoung.com |
The colors, that back, the detail. Wow. And this:
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| LAURENCE YOUNG Lady With Fan Oil/Wax on Canvas, framed 24" x 18" $ 2,200.00 available from Laurence Young www.laurenceyoung.com |
Again, colors, texture, depth, composition. AND, Laurence Young studied with Cynthia Packard. I knew I had to do something with this artist. I knew his work would have an audience outside of Provincetown and the Northeast. And now both VIEW GALLERY in Ridgeland, MS, and GREGG IRBY FINE ART in Atlanta, GA, have figurative pieces by Laurence Young.
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| LAURENCE YOUNG Leave Me Alone Mixed Media on Paper 18" x 24" matted $ 275.00 available from VIEW GALLERY-Ridgeland, MS www.viewgalleryart.com |
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| LAURENCE YOUNG Take My Hand Oil/Wax on panel, framed 12" x 12" $ 900.00 available from VIEW GALLERY-Ridgeland, MS www.viewgalleryart.com |
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| LAURENCE YOUNG Strike A Pose Mixed Media on Paper 18" x 24" Matted $ 325.00 available from GREGG IRBY FINE ART-Atlanta, GA www.greggirbyfineart.com |
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| LAURENCE YOUNG Seated Woman Suite Mixed Media on Paper 18" x 24" Matted $ 325.00 available from GREGG IRBY FINE ART-Atlanta, GA www.greggirbyfineart.com |
Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM) currently has Laurence Young's "Veiled Portrait" on display in the annual members juried show which is hanging at PAAM through January.
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| LAURENCE YOUNG Veiled Portrait Oil/Wax on Canvas 30" x 30" $ 2,900.00 available from Laurence Young, www.laurenceyoung.com |
Known for her landscapes, Kelli Kaufman created a series of nude figurative pieces after studying with Laurence Young in 2010 and Cynthia Packard this past Summer. About painting nudes, Kelli wrote:
"I enjoy painting them because they are new to me. It’s been a process of exploring new
territory, out of my usual comfort zone, and that’s exciting to me."
For Kelli there is a release, a freedom, from painting landscapes. And an entire show was devoted to figurative work.
"Silhouette" opened at Kelli Kaufman Studio and Gallery in Lafayette, LA, in September of this year and received great praise.
Four of the galleries that represent Kelli Kaufman have figurative pieces in inventory:
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| KELLI KAUFMAN Blue Solitude I Oil/Wax on Panel, framed 16" x 20" $ 750.00 available from VIEW GALLERY-Ridgeland, MS www.viewgalleryart.com |
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| KELLI KAUFMAN No Man is an Island Oil and Wax on Canvas, framed 18" x 24" $ 750.00 available from PERCH-New Orleans, LA www.perch-home.com |
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| KELLI KAUFMAN Wade in the Water Oil/Wax/Pastel on Panel, framed 9" x 12" $ 225.00 available from OASIS-Destin, FL www.oasisrugandhome.com |
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| KELLI KAUFMAN Repose Oil and Wax on Canvas, framed 16" x 20" $ 750.00 available from OASIS-Destin, FL www.oasisrugandhome.com |
And then there is Jacob Broussard, a 20 year old art major at University of Louisiana at Lafayette. When a gallerist saw Jacob's work earlier this year, she said, "this isn't learned. It is innate in him." Phyllis Geary of VIEW GALLERY in Mississippi was talking about Jacob Broussard's incredible command of the human figure and flesh and facial expressions and capturing life in a painting.
Often working from archival photographs from his family's stash of 1940s and 50s photos, Jacob brings a familiar moment in time to today. So much so that the viewer feels connected to the figure, the man, the woman, who has been elevated to receiving full attention and focus in Jacob's paintings.
"Elmo Jun" captured Best in Show at the 2013 Big Easel Art Show in Lafayette. About this piece, Jacob Broussard wrote:
"it's a 1947 image of my grandfather with his biker gang as a child. It's been part of an investigation I've developed this past semester, I was looking for different ways towards approaching flesh with paint; as I was researching different artists, I was thinking of a spiritual sense of flesh, family lineage, reincarnation, different flesh, but same spirit sort of work. Since looking at old photographs and reproducing many copies, I wanted that to become incorporated within the painting, so I duplicated the faces and hands, almost a literal interpretation of reproducing yourself from your ancestors. My grandfather is a paraplegic now, he lost his right leg 7 years ago on my 13th birthday. I wanted his leg to be a focus, exposed area of the painting, being that he lost flesh on a day of significance, a day of reproducing of his own flesh (my birthday). This commemorative painting addresses boyhood, domestic life, the age of lost innocence."
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| JACOB BROUSSARD Elmo Jun Mixed Media on Canvas 24" x 48" SOLD |
For a recent fundraiser for CODOFIL (Council for the Development of French in Louisiana), Jacob created "Couche Couche" based off of a photograph of the artists great grandfather and his relatives sitting at the kitchen table eating the classic Cajun dish called Couche Couche.
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| JACOB BROUSSARD Couche Couche Oil on Canvas 24" x 36" SOLD |
Galleries representing Jacob Broussard currently have some great piece in inventory including:
STUDY ON BICYCLE which is based off of "an original 1940s photograph from Scott, Louisiana, including the artist's grandfather and some of his childhood friends. Duplicated handlebars and arms suggest the process of recreating an image, old with time and creating 'flesh' in a sense, making it real, rebirthing the memory of these children."
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| JACOB BROUSSARD Study on Bicycle Acrylic on Canvas 24" x 48" $ 1,350.00 available from VIEW GALLERY-Ridgeland, MS www.viewgalleryart.com |
Have an image of family members or ancestors that you would like to see brought to life in a painting? Consider Jacob Broussard for a commissioned piece.
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| JACOB BROUSSARD Figure with Blue EyeOil on Canvas, framed 16" x 20" $ 200.00 available from EDWARD DARE GALLERY-Charleston, SC |
Finally, from a series that Jacob did last year, Orpheus: Doubt Comes In.
About this piece:
"“The Orpheus painting is an interpretation of the Grecian mythology of Orpheus and Eurydice; I wanted to
have the Underworld and the river Styx almost as this rundown, pull apart junk
yard, very southern slums. I have Orpheus walking forward, leading Eurydice out
of the Underworld, trying not to look back at her; Eurydice is out of the picture
frame, making the focus Orpheus. I wanted to capture the shift in glances as he
becomes doubtful of her presence and turns to see if she even exists, and
ultimately, leading to her downfall.”
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| JACOB BROUSSARD Orpheus: Doubt Comes In 36" x 36" Acrylic on Canvas $ 750.00 available from PERCH-New Orleans, LA www.perch-home.com |
If you didn't already, I suggest clicking on each image to see the detail in the pieces. Who are your favorite figurative artists past or present, attainable (i.e.-affordable) or not? Leave a comment or shoot me an email. I would love to know about more incredible artists.
For more information or photos of any of the pieces by Laurence Young, Kelli Kaufman, or Jacob Broussard, please email me at jefferymccullough@hotmail.com.
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