JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2009 www.galleryandstudiomagazine.com VOL. 11 NO. 5 New York GALLERY&STUDIO Oil on canvas, 77 15/16 x 58 1/16 in. (198 x 147.5 cm) Sara Hildén Foundation / Sara Hildén Art Oil on canvas, 77 15/16 x 58 1/16 in. (198 147.5 cm) Sara Hildén Foundation / Two Studies for a Portrait of George Dyer, 1968 Studies for a Portrait of George Dyer, Two Francis Bacon (British, 1909–1992) / DACS, London York ARS, New The Estate of Francis Bacon / Finland © 2009 Tampere, Museum, MONSTER MASTER Francis Bacon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Ed McCormack, pg. 12 art of emotionalism Climate & Environment International Show October 12 to 31, 2009 New Century Artists Inc. 530 West 25th Street NYC 10001 (4th fl., suite 406, betw. 10th & 11th Aves. ) 212 367 7072 Joanna Banek • Linda Domanoski Barbara Frankiewicz • Carla Goldberg Stephanie Joyce • Basha Maryanska Uzia Ograbek • Agnieszka Opala Helena Szawlowska • Aga Szyfter Lubomir Tomaszewski • Barbara Walter Veryal Zimmerman Opening Reception Thursday, October 15th, 3 - 6pm GALLERY&STUDIO JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2009 G&S Highlights On the Cover: Seen as a sideshow to mainstream modern art for much of his career, in “Francis Bacon: A Centenary Retrospective,” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the painter of screaming popes emerges posthumously was a postmodern master. –Page 12 Stephen Cimini, pg. 7 Karin Perez, pg. 21 Dorothy A. Culpepper, pg. 4 Ebip Serafedino, pg. 23 Enrique Cubillas, pg. 22 Shizuko Kimura, pg. 17 The GALLERY&STUDIO advertising deadline for the September/October issue is MODERN HISTORICISM August 7 for color, Architectural Designs & Drawings August 1www0 for black/white. by Irina Shumitskaya and Anton Glikin GALLERY&STUDIO An International Art Journal PUBLISHED BY ©EYE LEVEL, LTD. 2009 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 217 East 85th Street, PMB 228, New York, NY 10028 (212) 861-6814 E-mail: [email protected] EDITOR AND PUBLISHER Jeannie McCormack August 10 – September 10, 2009, Mon-Fri, 1-6 pm MANAGING EDITOR Ed McCormack Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America SPECIAL EDITORIAL ADVISOR Margot Palmer-Poroner 20 West 44th Street, Third Floor, New York, NY 10036 DESIGN AND PRODUCTION Karen Mullen CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Maureen Flynn Opening: Monday, August 10, 6-8 pm www.galleryandstudiomagazine.com Attendance Confirmation & Inquiries: [email protected] 2 GALLERY&STUDIO JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2009 Russian Melodies Echo Through the Fiber Art of Ludmila Aristova hile many woman artists who began and fairy Was painters turned to textiles in the tales in a late 1960s and early ’70s, at the height of charm- the feminist era, and, once having dis- ing faux covered their rich coloristic and textural naive possibilities, made them their medium of figurative choice, the Russian-born artist Ludmila manner, Aristova came to fiber art from the opposite seemingly direction. informed In 1969, after completing her studies in equal at the Moscow Textile Institute, Aristova mea- began a career in fashion design, and by sure by 1981, her bio tells us, was well known for Russian “creating one-of-a-kind wearable pieces, icons, which were exhibited and sold at the Mos- the set cow Art Salons and to a group of private designs clients.” From examples one has seen in of Natalia reproduction, there can be no doubt that Gon- Aristova’s wearable pieces are works of art charova, in their own right –– particularly a fanciful and the garment called “Midnight Waltz,” with a colors long dark skirt that swirls sparkling visions of the of the night city around the wearer’s legs, Fauves; as though she were dancing along the to for- “Birth of Super Nova” Photo: D. James Dee skyline. mally so- passages of painting to her compositions Although Aristova continues to create phisticated Neo-Constructivist geometric wherever she deems them appropriate.) wearable art (“Midnight Waltz” won the compositions; to the more lyrical abstract Like her great Russian predecessor Was- 2008 Creme de la Creme award at the pieces and cityscapes she will be showing at sily Kandinsky, who also named some of International Quilt Festival, in Houston, Noho Gallery in Chelsea, 530 West 25th his compositions with musical terminology, Texas), she was introduced to art quilts Street, from July 28 to August 22. (Recep- Aristova makes visual analogies to color and during her first visit to the United States tion: Thursday, July 30, 5-8pm.) sound in a gemlike series of small pieces in in 1991, and they quickly became her new Among Aristova’s most dynamic recent perfectly square formats, entitled “Etudes.” passion. She found that the techniques of pieces is “Birth of Super Nova,” in which These are among her most lyrical works. piecing, appliqué, wafering, embroidery, she employs a rich variety of stitching tech- As with Paul Klee’s smaller works, their beading, and quilting that she had been niques and now unavailable Russian fabrics intimate scale serves to draw the viewer using in her garments for years were tailor to depict one of those stellar explosions, closer, to savor Aristova’s use of silken made (to succumb to a bad but irresistible occurring only once every fifty or so years, ribbons layered like contrapuntal rhythms, pun) for her new art form. And since she that can reportedly outshine an entire gal- strands of golden fiber that sing out as apparently began without a lot of the self- axy. In keeping with the chromatic intensity stridently as trumpet blasts, and areas of conscious preconceptions about stylistic of this magnificent cosmic phenomenon, stitching that meander like supple melo- consistency that can hobble those who’ve her colors are especially luminous here, dies, creating striking visual counterparts always considered themselves fine artists, with vibrant golden yellows, interwoven to musical composition. And in a slightly she was free to experiment with a variety of with an entire spectrum of secondary hues, larger piece called “Sounds of Music # 4,” themes and ideas simultaneously. radiating out from the jaggedly irregular brightly colored beads, set against equally Obviously, her new life in New York City explosive shape, set against a tactile field of brilliant ribbons, layered like tactile skeins provided her with one continuing sub- darker tones, that serves as the nucleus of of oil impasto, suggest bouncy notes in a ject after she settled here permanently, as the composition. rollicking jazz score. evidenced by “Landscape,” in which, now This piece is a splendid example of the Equally evocative are four companion liberated from function, urban structures seemingly contradictory yet occasionally pieces called “Seasons,” in which those four like those in “Midnight Waltz” (the Empire germane term “abstract realism,” since turning points of the year are interpreted State Building prominent among them) are it bears a striking resemblance to photo- with the singular lyricism that has garnered set against a pink and orange sky filled with graphic images one remembers having seen Ludmila Aristova numerous awards and puffy, rhythmic cloud formations, created over the years of actual supernovas. Yet it a place in several private and museum col- with a combination of quilting and delicate also functions superbly as a nonobjective lections, including those of the All-Russia hand-tinting. composition combining the gestural energy Museum of Decorative-Applied and Folk Also inspired by mythology, folklore, of Abstract Expressionism with a chromatic Arts, in Moscow, and the Museum of Arts her Russian heritage, and any number of complexity that, by virtue of the infinitely & Design in New York City. other things, Aristova obviously didn’t variegated subtleties which can only be In the present exhibition at Noho Gal- worry about contriving a “signature achieved with fiber, surpasses most Color lery in Chelsea, however, a venue that has style,” seemingly realizing early on that Field painting. (At the same time, being proven especially sympathetic to innovative her singular aesthetic sensibility, supported more interested in heightening the expres- fiber art, one gets to see a truly sumptuous by her exquisite technical ability, imposed sive qualities of each work, whatever it selection of her very best work. its own consistency. Thus she was able to takes, than adhering to notions of technical move freely from depictions of village life purism, Aristova is not adverse to adding –– Ed McCormack JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2009 GALLERY&STUDIO 3 Dorothy A. Culpepper: Emotion in Motion “ lassical” might the more familiar Cseem an odd one becomes with word to apply to Culpepper’s com- paintings such as those positions, the more of Dorothy A. Cul- one realizes that pepper, whose solo “Cocoon in Red” they are possessed of show is on view from June 30 to August 1, evident component in the paintings of an entirely different dynamic than that of at Montserrat Contemporary Art Gallery, Culpepper, who once said that she regards the older painter. For rather than swirl- 547 West 27th Street, where her work is paint as “an extension of my feelings or ing linearly across the canvas, her poured also featured in the venue’s year-round moods.” At times it has been more overt, forms appear to surge forth from within the salon exhibition. (Reception: Thursday, as in a series of deeply affecting works that composition, giving the sense of a gigantic July 2, 6-8pm.) she showed in 2004 in memory of her then gush, as in the aforementioned reference to After all, Culpepper is known for her recently deceased husband. But even when a volcano. energetic use of dripped and splashed pig- the emotion is less specifically expressed, it Indeed, molten lava is what immedi- ment to conjure up a sense immediacy in is always present in her paintings as a mo- ately comes to mind when one looks at a her abstract paintings that is anything but tivating force.