Stanley Lewis

Hello followers!  With the new season upon us, we are reinvigorated and are re-encouraged to record our thoughts and adventures! 

Stanley Lewis, Westport, 2010-2014, oil on canvas 21.25 by 35.25 inches

Stanley Lewis at Betty Cunningham Gallery

Betty Cunningham Gallery has moved to the LES so we had quite the adventure taking the subway down and navigating new territory.  The space was absolutely outstanding and beautiful. 

“You have to learn what abstraction is in order to understand what painting is.”    ~ Stanley Lewis

 “Abstraction” is an interesting thought to ruminate while viewing the show.  This thought has been with me for the last couple of days, slowly digesting and coloring the lens through which I view painting.  Abstracting is a perfect word to describe the liberty Lewis takes with paint application while still maintaining picture integrity.  This is no small feat.  It is as if the landscape that Lewis observes is merely a convenience for the opportunity to apply paint and build texture. 

Most, but not all of the paintings in the show were thick with paint, celebrating paint for the sake of paint.  We loved the beautiful texture that followed the heavy paint application that made the work incredibly rich and interesting to view up close, but also that the images became startlingly photorealistic from afar. 

The drawings were stunning.  Lewis’s line quality was precise and confident without being finicky or belabored.  I love that line is such an important element in his work.  I enjoyed how many ways he could manipulate paint to form hard and soft lines, but also let his painting surface choice dictate compositionally pleasing linear edges.  In every instance, the addition of a new panel to the piece creates an opportunity for visual play. 

For more information go to: http://www.bettycuninghamgallery.com/current_exhibition.aspx

Is First Street Figurative Gallery?

Is First Street Figurative Gallery?

Paul Cézanne, Bather (1885-1887),
 Museum of Modern Art

 Our website says:

"An artist-run gallery, First Street's dual mission is to exhibit and promote the work of talented artists and to provide the public with an opportunity to see and learn about contemporary art in a more accessible milieu than that offered by commercial galleries. The gallery remains focused on the presentation of art in the figurative tradition but embraces a wide diversity of styles, media, and interpretations of 'figuration'." 

- http://firststreetgallery.net/about.html

Hans Hofmann's painting 'The Gate', 1959–60

 What is Figuration/Figurative Art?  

I just got an opening announcement/invite for a “figurative show” and it was a show specifically for work rendering the human form.  It got me thinking.  “Figurative” is a word often misused by gallerists and artists alike.  The idea that this word means art that has to do with the human figure is prevalent but while art deriving from the human form is certainly figurative, not all figurative work involves the human form.  Wikipedia defines figuration the same way First Street Gallery does: 

"Figurative art, sometimes written as figurativism, describes artwork—particularly paintings and sculptures—that is clearly derived from real object sources, and are therefore by definition representational. "Figurative art" is often defined in contrast to abstract art:

Since the arrival of abstract art the term figurative has been used to refer to any form of modern art that retains strong references to the real world.^[1]

Painting and sculpture can therefore be divided into the categories of figurative, representational and abstract, although, strictly speaking, abstract art is derived (or abstracted) from a figurative or other natural source. However, "abstract" is sometimes used as a synonym for non-representational art and non-objective art, i.e. art which has no derivation from figures or objects.

Figurative art is not synonymous with "art that represents the human figure," although human and animal figures are frequent subjects."

-  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figurative_art

Still Life by Ruth Miller

I speak for myself but my understanding with regards to FSG is that we are a gallery partaking in the figurative tradition but not exclusively so.  It is all about the quality of the work and the individual behind it.  Do you agree?  Do you disagree?  Why? I am interested having this discussion and getting as much input as possible on the subject.  I think that this is the best forum for this kind of discussion and I am hoping to get some opinions.  What are your two cents?

View from Smith College by Stanley Lewis