NYAB Event - Charles Ritchie Exhibition

Charles Ritchie Exhibition

BravinLee Programs

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BravinLee presents its third exhibition of work by Charles Ritchie. BravinLee first learned of Charles Ritchie’s astonishing work in 2007 on the website of the esteemed art collector Mickey Cartin.

On the occasion of Charles Ritchie’s last show at BravinLee in 2009, Blake Gopnik wrote in the Washington Post:

“His observation is so evenhanded that he manages to strike a perfect balance between the outside seen through the glass and the domestic interior reflected in it. It's nature's own double exposure, caught without the help of film.”

About his first exhibition at BravinLee in 2007, Holland Cotter lauded Ritchie’s Journals in the New York Times:

“Each small book is filled with marvelous watercolors and all but indecipherable writing. Mr. Ritchie has been making such books for 30 years. They are extraordinary”

Charles Ritchie’s exterior subjects, the plots of grass, trees and foliage, streetlights, shadows, reflections and neighboring homes are mostly seen in the dark or in early morning light. The work takes on the feeling of detailed forensic evidence with Ritchie as the artist detective on a stakeout visually recording exactly what he sees and feels. Ostensibly figureless, occasionally the artist’s own reflection is glimpsed. But if you have an adequately dark imagination you may assume a prosaically menacing Raymond Burr type from 'Rear Window' is lurking in the shadows.

Ritchie is far more matter of fact in this artist statement:

Artist Statement:

Since 1985 I have been drawing from the same window, observing the evolution of a limited group of subjects. Night often permeates my images, comingling the streetscape with the reflection of my studio. I am intrigued with the merging of interior and exterior spaces and the associations that arise. Yet, the pictures begin with the scene and aim to move deeper, beyond what is seen. Often the invisible is what is most evocative and by offering the viewer a context in which essential details are obscured, I leave things open to interpretation. Night is engaged for its obscuring qualities.

My drawings are constructed over extended periods; months, even years. Darks are usually mixed from other colors, not black, as a means of keeping warm and cool tonalities in flux. Recently, I have been studying closely the colors of night and have broadened my palette to include even more hues.

Variation in size, shape, edge, surface, and technique are critical issues for me. At any one time I am developing many drawings and I often work them for years by building up layers of pigment and paper and breaking them back down with erasures and revisions. The surfaces evolve over these extended periods leaving pentimenti, a history of growth.

While relying on watercolor as a primary medium, some recent works are created in graphite alone or in combination with conté crayon. These friable media allow me to create tone via the slow accretion of line and offer options for easy erasure. With these new approaches, I find myself venturing towards the obscuring effects of daylight as well as night.

After years of scrutiny my subjects have continually accrued greater meaning and mystery for me. As I evolve with them I aim to come to deeper levels of awareness and to more fully interpret the magic and mystery behind the surface of things.
--Charles Ritchie, 2012, Silver Spring MD

[Image: Charles Ritchie "November" (1999-2011) conté crayon, graphite, and watercolor on Fabriano paper, 18 x 22¼ in.]