Expressive Portraiture - Richmond Garrick

I recently heard from a friend about a show based on Homer’s Odyssey that she said I just “had to see”. Before venturing out to see it for myself, I figured I should do some re-reading to refresh my memory from high school, which was longer ago than I care to think about. What I remembered was how much I was not a fan of the epic story, but figured that being the visual person I was, maybe seeing it as a collection of art would bring new life to the story for me. I was unfortunately unimpressed by the series and the passages that had been chosen to illustrate, but as I was walking out of the gallery that had this work, some paintings in the adjacent gallery caught my eye. The artist is Richmond Garrick and though there were only five of his paintings hanging, I couldn’t stop looking at them.
The work that was on the facing wall as you enter the gallery (pictured second above) was the largest of the five pieces and immediately drew you into the work. His style of paint application uses wide, expressive brushstrokes with thick layers of paint that don’t translate well in photographs. The thickness in some areas more closely resembled a relief surface than a painted surface. The subjects of the paintings were not titled with names, but all are obviously of people, even in the most obscured ones, figures and faces were fairly easy to discern. This particular piece, titled Resistance , I approached with a feeling of urgent empathy. It was as if I was approaching someone in pain or in need of assistance. I am not positive if it was due to the size or just the fact that the expression of the figure was so clear, but I quickly realized that who the person was was not important. What Garrick was trying to express was the experience and the emotion of the moment.
In one of the smaller pieces, Vulnerable(top) , it is definitely more difficult to make out the scene and what feeling or moment Garrick is trying to portray. Using the title as a basis for delving further into the painting didn’t help much in this case. We have all experienced vulnerability and know what that feels like, but there are many situations that make us feel vulnerable and what was happening to this person seemed to be more than that. This continued to peak my interest as I continued around the room. Not only was this image the least detailed, but the title guaranteed that it stayed that way. I suddenly felt uncomfortable, as if I were invading this person’s privacy or space in some way. Whether or not this is what was intended by the artist, I may never know, but it was amazing how vulnerable I was becoming to the emotions evoked by each piece.
On my way out of the gallery, there was some literature about Garrick. The title was Expression of Oppression, A Metaphor for the Unthinkable. Having been inspired by an African American Heritage project of his daughters, Garrick completed some detailed portraits of Civil Rights heroes such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks, but the paintings seem to come from a much deeper place. A place where we react to the conflict and oppression that still exist and are even tolerated in the world. A place where “out of sight, out of mind” cannot be used to allow us to pretend it doesn’t exist. Garrick’s paintings make those feelings real and bring you face to face with tormented expressions on the faces of his subjects.
To me, though in a less specific way, the work of Garrick is similar to that of Goya. He may not be painting a detailed eye witness-like view of a battle or conflict, but has certainly documented the emotions and effects of war, oppression and the unthinkable in a way that the viewer doesn't just "see" it, but experiences it for themselves.

Note: Other artists with similar work in theme and style - Sheba Sharrow www.shebasharrow.com

Short Paper 2 -Joe Kardonne

Joe Kardonne – Retrospective
Ocean City Fine Arts League
September 15, 2007 & ongoing

Growing up in a small suburb or medium sized, mostly middle class town,
children are instilled with the belief that they can be whatever they dream to be and do whatever they aspire to do. Young children will usually want to be what they emulate, a fireman, a nurse, a teacher, a doctor and so on. As they progress through middle school ages and stages, the goals become loftier. At 14 or 15, now it is the pop star, the actress or the professional athlete that most say they aspire to be. The term “making it big” or “being famous” or becoming a star in the “big city” (whichever city it may be) tend to characterize these goals. And for some, these will become an eventual reality. For most, with maturity it becomes more apparent what strengths and talents are those that should be given focus and attention and this then determines career choices. In the case of artist Joe Kardonne, this order is reversed.
Joe Kardonne started out in the city of Newark, New Jersey in 1911. Those who knew him said that his interest in art started at a very young age. At the age of 15, when most of us are dreaming about our futures as actresses and athletes, Joe was painting his first mural at a department store near to where he grew up. This led him to a career in the commercial arts, eventually opening his own ad agency. Though this was his career, his love for photography, painting and even music continued to grow throughout his life. He at one point worked with such artists as Cameron Booth, Howard Trafton, Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock at the Student’s League of New York City. After many successful years in the ad world, he eventually retired to Ocean City, a quiet, small and liquor free New Jersey shore community, a far cry from the exciting, dream career that led him to the “big city”. Finding his place as an artist in this small community included the Ocean City Fine Arts League where his presence impacted numerous artists and friends, and where now hangs a collection of work as a memorial to his life and great body of work.
Through most of his works, the use of figures and their positions effectively create a body language that sets clear moods and in some cases can even cause the viewer to feel as if they have happened upon a private moment. In his painting “Triston And Isoldi”, for example, it is not necessary for the viewer to know the medieval legend of this love triangle to get the feeling that they are seeing a private and maybe even forbidden moment; a secret that we as the viewer feel compassion for and compelled to keep. It is the color and deepness of the reds and brown tones, the expression of the figures and the composition that build this visual story. From canvas to canvas, however, there are clearly different and deliberate techniques used in the application of paint and stroke to build these feelings. Different from the softness of “Triston And Isoldi” is the rougher, Cezanne like stroke of “Heavy Gale” used to create the chaos being experienced by the figure in the painting. In “Jazzhot” a bass player is portrayed with a brightly lit face as if on a stage, but one can definitely see the influence of cubism, especially the work of Juan Gris.
It was only last Spring that I was introduced to the Ocean City Fine Arts League as a juror for their “Friends of the Arts” exhibit. Joe Kardonne passed in March of 2005. From the time that he moved to Ocean City in 1986 to his last day on this Earth, he was painting, day and night, sharing his experience, his skill and his body of work with those at the Arts League. I wish that I had had the opportunity to talk to him or work with him, but it is clear from conversing with those who did, that he was an amazing person, artist, musician, teacher and friend.

Short Paper 1 - Water Ways:Interpretations by Nancy Cohen at the Noyes Museum

Water Ways: Interpretations by Nancy Cohen
The Noyes Museum of Art, Oceanville, NJ
September 4, 2007 to January 6, 2008


As a native of the Southern New Jersey shore region, it is easy to take for granted the diverse landscape that surrounds this area. Spend any length of time here and you will become so accustomed the natural beauty of this area that you begin to no longer see or appreciate it. In your daily travels, you will cross paths with small meandering waterways that feed the rivers which slowly turn into marshes that open up into expansive bays and eventually end their journey at the soft sand that covers our coast. The fragility of this ecosystem and the stress we put upon it seem to be conveniently pushed to the back of our minds. Viewing the sculpture of Nancy Cohen, inspired by the Mullica River Great Bay Estuary and watershed, will quickly bring back to mind the beauty of this region and a new appreciation for the importance of its ecology.
Upon entering the narrow gallery space that currently houses the sculpture of Nancy Cohen at the Noyes Museum, one is faced with a striking piece hanging alone on a wall just above eye level. The title, Shadow, fits this kinesthetic sculpture as its overlapping parts hang about three and five inches in front of the wall and sway with the air currents in the room. The part that hangs closest to the wall is an organic shape of slightly tinted glass with circular striations. In front of the glass is a wire form that weaves in and out of itself and has been coated in a pale blue-green paper. In constant motion, the wire form casts a shadow on the glass structure and through to the wall. The impression it gives is of ripples in the water that are lit by the sun and shadowed on the floor of a pool or natural body of water. As the viewer, the calming effect of water takes over as if you were hearing it or feeling it around you. This feeling continues as you travel through the gallery and past approximately twelve more small sculptures all made of similar materials such as glass, metal, cement, wire, wax, monofilament, resin, paper and sand, but none as stunning as the first. These small sculptures lead to the largest sculpture titled Estuary: Moods and Modes. This piece, constructed of a wire armature and covered in paper, extends at points from the ceiling to the floor and travels the length of a fifty foot wall. As you walk along this wall, the sculpture gradually bends and winds itself onto the floor as it simultaneously gets deeper and wider. The colors of the paper also gradually change from natural sand to shades of blue that deepen as it travels onto the floor. The shapes and colors undulate as if looking down from an airplane at the patterns and colors created by a body of water with its tributaries. Being able to walk in and out of areas of the sculpture bring a feeling of walking deeper and deeper into the water.
The motion of Cohen's sculptures and how the wire is being used to create shapes is reminiscent of the kinesthetic works and sculpture of Calder. Each piece on its own has interest and explores some aspect of the watershed ecosystem, however, I felt the placement and size of the works in the gallery lacked a flow that prepared you for the enormity of the last piece, Estuary: Moods and Modes. Moving along through the smaller sculptures, all of similar size and none larger that a foot or two deep and wide, didn’t visually prepare me for the immense size of the last installation. The entire feeling of the show would have been heightened by a gradual increase in size of the pieces, building up to the largest, as if going deeper and deeper into an expanse of water. The largest success of Cohen’s work lies in the direct translation of the beautiful and ever-changing patterns this watery landscape provides.

9/15/07

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