Figuratively Speaking
“Palimpsest,” a painting
incorporating the figure and still life by Thomas J. Shelford,
is part of the “Figuratively Speaking” show at Surface Library
in Springs.
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(10/14/2008)
Despite religious purges, the vagaries of fashion, and
various other academic and critical shifts, the figure remains a
classic and contemporary subject matter for painters, photographers,
sketchers, and sculptors.
Like a first love, car, or apartment, figure
drawing classes could be the academy’s equivalent of a formative
crush for a developing artist. And, as with a crush, artists may
return to the lessons it taught or the feelings it inspired, or
never leave it once they’ve found it.
At the Surface Library in Springs, James
Kennedy and Bob Bachler have assembled the works of seven South Fork
artists who have taken their inspiration from the figure.
Abby Abrams is one of the sculptors in the
group. Her bronze, ceramic, and wire pieces are a formidable
presence in the gallery and take both a realistic and abstract
approach at representation.
Thomas J. Shelford takes a unique approach by
incorporating the figure into classically formed still lifes of
books and fruit. It is absurd at first, but intriguing as well. Is
the figure a painting being reproduced by the artist or is it
something viewed through a window, voyeuristically? He also
contributes a group of pencil drawings and heads in profile that
exhibit a profound understanding of and sympathy with his
subjects.
Eunice Golden’s work is varied in medium and
style but in this case stays true to her subject, the male nude. One
painting looks similar to a work by Philip Pearlstein; in other
pieces, to something by Peter Max in its cavalcade of patchwork
color. A serigraph of two figures, one in positive and one in
negative on Mylar, has a celluloid quality that implies filmed
movement.
The gallery also presents photographs of male
torsos by Ann Brandeis that are cropped in a fashion that strips
away any personal identification, leaving a more abstract assemblage
of masses even in this realistic presentation.
Figure studies by Barbara Groot have a
calligraphic and almost Asian feel. The cast-bronze figures by Jerry
Schwabe capture both graceful movement and repose. There are
also some rather suggestive works by Richard Macdonald in
monochromatic oils that capture the body in times of union and
solitude.