THE NEW AMERICAN SUBLIME
LANDSCAPE AND ABSTRACTION BY CONTEMPORARY PAINTERS
Featuring Gregory Amenoff, Jake Berthot, Bernard Chaet, Laurel Hughes, Bill Jensen,
John Lees, Joan Snyder, John Walker
FEBRUARY 29 - APRIL 6, 2008
Reception: February 29, 6:30-7:30 pm
GALLERY TALK: Tuesday, March 18th, 4:30 pm
With Paul Sattler, acting chair, Dept. of Art
and associate professor of art, Skidmore College
The Nielsen Gallery in Boston lent multiple works for this exhibition. Additional paintings are on loan from Alpha Gallery, Boston, and the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Skidmore College. Sattler conceived the exhibition, which was co-curated by his Skidmore colleagues, Peter Stake, associate professor of art, and David Miller, professor of art and director of the Schick Art Gallery.
Gregory Amenoff, June, 2005, oil on panel, 28 x 30 inches, courtesy Nielsen Gallery, Boston
"ENTHUSIASM AND EXHULTATION" by Paul Sattler
The eye attunes, pastoral warbler, always.
Joy in the cradle of calamity
Wakes though dim voices work at lullaby.
Triumph of vision: the act by which we see
Is both the landscape-gardening of our dream
And the root's long revel under the clipped lawn.
James Merrill
from Foliage of Vision (1951)
"Enthusiasm and exultation" are the primary characteristics of determined artists; so said Cennino d'Andrea Cennini in his 14th century treatise and technical manual Il Libro dell'Arte. Such are the qualities to be found in our exhibition of painters, The New American Sublime. (more)
Bernard Chaet, Heavy Clouds, 2005, oil on canvas, 34 x 40 inches, courtesy Alpha Gallery, Boston
Jake Berthot, Bayard's Meadow, 1999, oil on panel, 15 3/4 x 22 inches, courtesy Nielsen Gallery, Boston