Artists in the City
The Figure in its Diversity
Adrienne Klein, Curator
The representation of the figure is central to the art of these five artists. With this in common, they might each be viewed as "an affirmer, a reclaimer of images that will counteract the negative ones,"* for such is the aspiration of many artists of color. However significant this ambition, the artists in this exhibition vary in their embrace of it, and their collective work, while figurative, reveals a remarkably wide range of motives and strategies for representation. The figure excepted, diversity is most characteristic of these works.
Charles D. Rogers paints powerful compositions, depicting figures, architecture, musical instruments, and even passages of light as bold geometric shapes. It is small wonder that he paints his figures as though they were sculpture. On his canvases, where all of the elements compete for primacy, the allusion to sculpture lends weight and authority to the figures. His artistic strategy requires that his figures, in the art studio and in jazz clubs, be generalized and subordinated to his larger design prerogative.
Arthur Bacon, by contrast, paints very particularized people and places. His inkwash drawings depict the people and places of the rural American South. Bacon's profound humanism is revealed in his dignified portrayals of workers and family groups. Bacon is devoted to his community and he paints the homes, barns, and cars that surround his subjects. These objects, too, seem imbued with character.
Louis Delsarte produces figurative works on a range of themes. His mix of media, his luminous color and dynamic marks flood across the canvas like jazz music, an early and enduring influence on his work. In his paintings, the relationship between the figure and ground – the painted space outside of the figure – shifts and alters. The patterned liveliness of this space draws our eye and suggests the enveloping sound of music. The figures are woven into this vibrant atmosphere.
The images in the work of Marcelo Novo arise from the unconscious mind. What motivates the (usually) human protagonists in Novo’s psychodramas does not yield to an easy or universal explanation. Novo wants viewers to project their own interpretations on his dreamscapes. To this end, he presents stylized figures in ambiguous settings, encouraging viewers to complete the narrative.
Arturo Lindsay succeeds in evoking the absent figure. Lindsay, an artist and ethnographer, combines his scholarship on African retentions in American cultures with his interest in multi-media installation. Video, paintings, and sacro-secular objects are often combined in alter-like tableaux. His paintings are iconic images. His alters suggest the performance of rituals, past and future. Thus, the viewer finds himself as though on a stage, with the potential for the reappearance of the performers.
Five artists; five very distinct treatments of the figure. In the informal interviews that follow, the artists reveal themselves as engaging individuals with diverse artistic agendas. It was my pleasure to work with them. I wish to thank them for generously sharing their insights.
* Lowery Stokes Sims, in Bearing
Witness, Contemporary Works by African American Women Artists.
(New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1996)
Adrienne Klein is an artist, curator and teacher. She has exhibited her work in nine solo and over 50 group exhibitions. She recently curated the exhibitions "Graphic Alert", an international survey of AIDS posters, and "Into Focus: Art on Science". Klein received a 1998 grant from the New York State Council on the Arts to examine the intersection of art and science.