Paul McDonough “Fine Lines”

Tabla Rasa Gallery

poster for Paul McDonough “Fine Lines”
[Image: Model with Vase and Pillow, Graphite pencil]

This event has ended.

Tabla Rasa Gallery presents FINE LINES, an exhibit of life drawings. Paul McDonough offers something magical: images that transport us beyond identifiable time and place, images that provoke questions of gender politics, a delicious visual seduction, all engendered from the simple act of skillfully touching pencil or pen to paper.

Fellow artist and Co-director of Tabla Rasa, Audrey Anastasi says, “Working together as artists, off and on over the past 30 years, Paul and I have been “sharing models” for figure drawing sessions. We are both skilled at “observational” drawing; that is, capturing how something looks on paper, drawing it directly from life without the use of photographs. What you see on paper is unquestionably the subject matter before us. However, an interesting pattern emerged. Although both of our drawings were recognizable as the individual model, Paul’s drawings of the female nude showed soft, touchable women, clearly created from a different point of view than mine. As a woman, I was relating to the female form from the inside looking out, resulting in more angular, harder figures, who frequently made direct eye contact with the viewer.

“As a gallerist, presenting Paul McDonough’s drawings of languid, romanticized female nudes, the question arises whether male-gaze, somewhat erotic depictions of women can legitimately exist in a culture striving for gender equality. Those of us reaching adulthood in the age of sexual revolution took for granted unprecedented personal freedom and open discourse. Politically, we are now getting a glimpse of the power of re-thinking, of how mores evolve, and of how repression can influence the way we experience art. The works are unabashedly sexual, but far less “sexualized” in intent than, for instance, a phantasmagorical Lisa Yuskavage painting of a female nude with wildly exaggerated breasts. Yet, Paul’s nudes are not coolly detached or clinical academic studies. His work is created of the moment, directly observed and devoid of agenda. Undeniably, the pencil marks and ink lines in McDonough’s drawings are as beautifully drawn and as sensual as the subjects themselves that he portrays.”

ABOUT Paul McDonough and “In the Studio”

Born in Portsmouth, NH, Paul McDonough was trained as an artist, studying drawing and painting with Nathan Goldstein at the New England School of Art in Boston. He was always attracted to the subject of the female nude, a time-honored tradition in Western art. When he moved to New York City in the late 1960’s, he literally stepped out of the studio and into the street where he photographed, not painted, the great, theatrical pageant of urban life. He also photographed nudes in the 1960’s and 1970’s, sporadically returning to the subject over the next few decades. But it wasn’t until 2004 when he built a studio above the top floor of his Brooklyn row house that his interest in the nude truly blossomed. He was able to blend his love of strong light with staged backgrounds that included references to his personal life, art history and fashion. Rather than being ancillary to the figures, the backdrops began to assume center stage, strong characters in their own right. The role of the nude evolved in the work from being the subject within a space to being a subject within a subject—the studio and the myriad objects that populated it. McDonough continues to draw these models in pen, pencil and charcoal, never fully letting go of his past training as a painter. The work contained in this volume shows an artist in full command of his many gifts; by now, it only seems natural that the studio has become his canvas and his world.

McDonough has been the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation and the Pollock Krasner Foundation. His work is in a number of public and private collections including, the Museum of Modern Art, the New York Public Library, the DeCordova Museum, the Dreyfus Corporation, the Lila Acheson Wallace Print Collection and the Joseph Seagram’s Collection. He is represented by the Sasha Wolf Gallery in New York and the Joseph Bellows Gallery in La Jolla. This is the first public exhibition of his drawings.

ABOUT Carl Gunhouse

Currently based in Brooklyn, NY, Boston native Carl Gunhouse has been part of the hardcore scene since the ‘90s. A photographer by trade, his work has exhibited in such places as Photoville, Spring Break Art Show, the Center for Photography at Woodstock, the Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Modern Art, and all over the globe. The Yale graduate has also been featured in outlets like The New York Times, Vice, and Maximum Rocknroll. Carl is a co-founder and director of Transmitter gallery, and co-director of Waal-boght Press. Located in Brooklyn, New York, Waal-Boght Press is run by Gunhouse and Jason John Würm. Their focus is on photography that engages with the world around us and they publish small edition books biennially.

Media

Schedule

from October 06, 2018 to October 27, 2018

Opening Reception on 2018-10-06 from 15:00 to 17:00

Artist(s)

Paul McDonough

  • Facebook

    Reviews

    All content on this site is © their respective owner(s).
    New York Art Beat (2008) - About - Contact - Privacy - Terms of Use