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| FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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| PAMELA
JOSEPH: WUNDERLUST
@ FRANCIS M. NAUMANN FINE ART
November
11 - December 23, 2009
Opening Reception: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - 6-8 pm
24
West 57th Street - Suite 305 | New York NY 10019 | 212.582.3201
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| CONTACT:
Dana Martin: 212.582.3201 | www.francisnaumann.com |
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Rousseau
Cinématique, 2009 - 9 panels
oil with collage on linen |
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| American
Nudism, after Rubens, 2009
Oil with Collage on Linen, 28.12 x 42.12 in. |
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“Pamela
Joseph: Wunderlust,” is the artist’s first
show at Francis M. Naumann Fine Art, and her
first major one-person showing in a New York gallery.
“Wunderlust” is a term of the artist’s
invention, a combination of the German wanderlust—meaning
a desire to wander or travel—with the English word “wonder,”
implying admiration or awe, particularly for something exceptionally
beautiful. The two words form an ideal summary of her paintings,
which take viewers on an excursion through familiar images that
are infused with unexpected and sometime comical diversions,
inspiring wonder at the sheer virtuosity of the transformation.
At times these changes can be somewhat disconcerting, as when
images excised from comic books appear in unexpected places.
This technique is used throughout the exhibition, but is perhaps
most powerful in her series Rousseau Cinématique,
nine paintings based on Henri Rousseau’s The Horse
Being Attacked by a Jaguar (1910). Here, Joseph begins
the process by working with a postcard reproduction of the Rousseau
painting, integrating—by means of collage—images
culled from erotic comic books, so that throughout the scene,
women’s heads and body parts appear and seem to disappear
within the dense jungle foliage. Since the process began with
a postcard, Joseph then reproduces the nine resultant paintings
in a postcard pack, which not only enhances the cinematic effect,
but which also amusingly restores the imagery to its original
source.
A similar process is employed in transforming other well-known
visual images, ranging from Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles
d’Avignon to Hokusai’s The Great Wave.
The artists Joseph has appropriated represent a roster of the
greatest painters of the 19th and 20th century: Francis Bacon,
Joan Brown, Paul Cézanne, Gustave Courbet, Salvador Dalí,
Raoul Dufy, Marcel Duchamp, Eric Fischl, Arshile Gorky, Philip
Guston, Anton Henning, Ando Hiroshige, Edward Hopper, Roy Lichtenstein,
Fra Filippo Lippi, Réné Magritte, Henri Matisse,
Michelangelo, Alice Neel, Georgia O’Keeffe, Eduardo Paolozzi,
Guido Reni and Diego Rodriguez De Silva y Velázquez.
The show ends with the last painting made by the artist, American
Nudism, which—like the other works in the exhibition—began
with a postcard, but in this case, it does not reproduce a work
of art, but rather the image of three nude, middle-aged figures
standing on an outdoor deck. Printed on the verso of the card
is a statement designed to question the morality of those who
frequented nudist camps, summer vacation enclaves were very
popular in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s. Joseph,
however, has permeated this image with a scene of writhing snakes
emerging from the head of Medusa (derived from a painting by
Peter Paul Rubens, ca. 1615), as well as rattlers, lizards and
scorpions from the Colorado countryside (near where she resides).
For the artist, the results represent a critique on the corruption
of American society, not only as it exists in the art world,
but even within the confines of an entrenched capitalist system,
which, due to the current financial crisis, has crippled our
ability to be free—to fulfill our dreams and live the
lives we desire. |
Francis
M. Naumann Fine Art specializes in the art of the
Dada and Surrealist periods, as well as a selection of contemporary
artists whose work displays related aesthetic sensibilities.
Catalogue: A fully illustrated, 36-page catalogue,
with an introductory essay by Eleanor Heartney. $25 postpaid.
Postcards: A postcard packet reproducing
the nine paintings in Rousseau Cinématique has been
prepared specially for this exhibition. $5 postpaid.
Gallery
Hours: Tuesday through Saturday: 11:00 AM –
6:00 PM.
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