John Lees "Recent Paintings"
Betty Cuningham Gallery
This event has ended.
The exhibition will feature recently completed work, although many of the paintings were started decades ago. Lees characteristically spends years working and reworking his paintings and drawings. The build up and sanding down of paint, tears, patches and even written diary logs of dates are among the physical reminders of the lengthy time spent on each painting.
Lees focuses on the singular, monolithic image: a pond, a portrait, a mountain or a tub. His images, such as that of his father in Man Sitting in an Arm Chair, 2010, or of Lees’ childhood home in House in Denville, 1976 – 2011, or of the Otis Art Institute where he studied in Courtyard (Oval), 1989 – 2010, are all dense with memories and personal meaning.
A few paintings in this exhibition combine personal fantasy with historical styles. In Nomads of Route 66, 2011, Lees references his parents’ move west in the post-World War II migration, as if quoted from an early film noir. He quotes the art of Edward Hopper and the 1930’s literature of Jean Rhys, in his 2010 painting Jean Rhys. Fun Boy Blues (For Joseph Ferris), 2003-2010, casts the tenor sax, Lees’ favored jazz instrument, against a complex historical landscape. In Old Buckaroo, 2011, Lees’ love of old western films comes to the fore, but this painting in its study form is titled Old Painter, 2007-2010, indicating the deep personal reasons for his choice of subject.
Media
Schedule
from April 08, 2011 to May 14, 2011
Opening Reception on 2011-04-08 from 18:00 to 20:00