Visiting the Hunter Museum is always an enlightening experience that provides the guest with a spectrum of visual art in a causal and contemporary manner. I never feel pressured to be dressed to the nines when I go, relaxed in my gallery explorations and discoveries. The rift between the surreal and the realist perspective is complicated and lengthy The objective piece I chose was the painting, Il Mostro, by Tony Scherman. The face's gaze is what caught my attention from across the Hunter's gallery. The eyes are full of emotion, glazed and grey, raising questions about the memories of the being in front of me. The sheer size and completeness of skin tone on the canvas' surface is intimidating, overwhelming, and endearing all in a moment. The cools present in the work along with the warms and association of an assumingly live human's face are intriguing to me and make me feel empathy for whoever the mystery being might be. The fact that the facial features are centered compositionally and that their enormity is so apparent is what makes the work humbling. The grey eyes and furrowed brow allow the viewer to presume the being to be apathetic or at least melancholy but I subconsciously project my own fantasy of what their life consisted of. I create my own whirlpool of emotion as I stand in front of the stare on the canvas. Scherman's use of expression and the idiom of his paint marks were particularly interesting to me. The colors available in this piece are similar to those one would find in the human anatomy with flesh tones, reds, and blues, creating a volume. The color combination helps allow the viewer to have an almost social connection with the painting, as I did viewing it from across the room.
Tony Scherman, Il Mostro, encaustic on canvas, 1998
In contrast to the humanistic endeavors of II Mostro is Richard Hunt's Untitled in the main gallery hallway. Hunt takes organic shapes and arranges them in an unrecognizable manner in the pieces that I saw at Hunter. His work is almost typographical in form, keeping his compositions in mainly black and white, high contrast forms. The linear forms here are sporadic but planned, and these lines complete a composition worth studying. This piece isn't as emotionally provoking as Il Mostro but is visually intriguing. I really enjoyed the shapes my eye found within the composition and the pleasurable anxiety that my brain recognizes in the chaotic repetitions. This raises questions about what the artist was thinking or feeling when composing the piece. I thought that the cold black and white composition was a comparable difference to the seemingly alive Scherman piece. The disparity of line and design in this piece allows the viewer to make their own assumptions about what the work means instead of having an immediate association thrust upon them. I was especially interested in the layering work that both artists displayed, either through paint or lithography, creating depth and density in their pieces. I really enjoyed the opportunity to visit the Museum again and encounter as well as interpret these artworks and those to come.
Richard Hunt, Untitled, lithograph, printed in brown-black on Arches, buff, 22/25, 1978
Selfie
No comments:
Post a Comment