David B. Frye “The Lincoln Paintings: 2003-2015”

Songs For Presidents

poster for David B. Frye “The Lincoln Paintings: 2003-2015”

This event has ended.

Songs for Presidents presents The Lincoln Paintings: 2003-2015, an exhibition of new paintings and sculptures by David B. Frye.

Fierce in content, David B. Frye’s work purposefully disables a sense of balance created by an understanding of history. He draws you into the fear, playing simultaneously with confrontation and contradiction. Social order, race politics, historical “knowledge” etc - the long secured cultural leaning posts we all adhere to - to justify reason and the predicated fiction we collectively enjoy - come crashing here. As Dave will generously agree, “this shit is fucked up.” And rightly so. What takes a second to understand, with works that tip towards contention, remarkably filter through an enlightened lens. David B. Frye has been strongly focused on the narrative of social imbalance for well over twenty years. True to the dis-clarity “life out of wack,” his work has always stood to justify such disorientation through equally disjunctive example. After 12 years of work, the Lincoln paintings will culminate with this show at Songs for Presidents.

In writing about the Lincoln Paintings, Dave has said:

American historical painting has, for the most part, always been about ideals and ideal realities. Americana is an ideal representation of the glory of us. Through this device painting is frequently pressed into the service of some perceived “good” to our society. I think of the happy slaves one sees romping through their chores at the splendid home of George Washington. I can promise you all, there is such a painting. It hangs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I did not paint it, of course, but it is as much a product of lies as any thing I ever dreamt up. Such a painting not only tells the “story of George Washington,” it supports an ideal social order that many Americans are comfortable with. Think of pious Christian mothers free from the struggles and trials of women, or walls filled with images of those soldiers who do not bleed, but walk eternally towards the glory of battle. Our national story is made clean by means of these symbolic realities. Our history is thereby expunged of the lessons hidden in its tragedy. This may be seen as the noble lie that Plato spoke of.

Years ago, while I was attending a funeral reception, an old friend commented on his horror at seeing two men kiss. He went further to express his contempt for gay marriage. The whole time he was speaking his children played in front of a blaring television. On the T.V. screen were images of the burnt bodies of two men hanging from a bridge. The Iraq war was decent enough for his children, but sex never! It was then that I began to really wonder: what could be making so many people blind? Violence is all around and few people act to stop it. Very few people curse and oppose violence the way they oppose equality for gays. People speak out on somber occasions, organize voter referendums, and scream all night in churches to stop sex. The fact that American children are being shot on the way to school proves my point. There are limits on who can see sex, still more limits on who can buy or sell sex. However, anybody can buy a gun in most places. I am convinced that no amount of depicting violence as it is would cause reflection or even discussion. My work uses sexual imagery as a form of protest. I have asked myself, “Is a dick in somebody else’s ass worse than a child being shot on the way to school?” This new work is the last of my Lincoln paintings, although violence endures as a constant. I hope for a time where love is the law, and kindness a standard.

-David B. Frye, New York, 2015


David B. Frye lives and works in Queens, New York. The Lincoln Paintings: 2003-2015 was curated by James Sheehan.

Media

Schedule

from September 26, 2015 to October 25, 2015

Opening Reception on 2015-09-26 from 19:00 to 22:00

Artist(s)

David B. Frye

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