The relationship between text and image is undeniable. Every image we see conjures up a lyrical thought. With every word we read, an image is painted in our minds. The Sherry French Gallery in Chelsea explores this innate connection in their annual show, "Painting = Poetry - ut pictura poesis".
Both artists and poets participating in this art show rework emotions into a pleasurable form, pleasing both the eye and soul via their art work. Both paper and canvas offer a blank surface upon which to articulate one's vision and deepest feelings. One can read a painting as one would a poem- each having a dramatic affect on the viewer. Placed side by side on the wall, the viewer will be able to both view and read the two forms of expression as one, each defining the other.
The artists featured in the show include: Eliza Auth, Arthur Chartow, Fred Danziger, Jacqueline Gnott, Anne Johann, Nancy Bea Miller, John Morrell, Jeanne Rovegno, Michael Schweigart, and Mark Zunino.
Realist artist Jeanne Rovegno conjures up such lyrical thoughts through her tiny but
forceful paintings. It is clear that Rovegno paints from both direct
observation and imagination, as her art is both formally and
psychologically rich, personal and intimate. Her figure and still life paintings develop in
a surprising way, intriguingly finding tension between the paint
surface and illusion. To create her paintings, Rovegno looks for a color, an interesting
shape, an idiosyncratic point of view, or even those things not
visible to the eye, such as wind, for inspiration. The artist states, "The
fleeting nature of a particular moment in time inspires these works."
Working quickly in dialogue with the composition, she manipulates
color to express unique statements and emotions. She states, "my
intention in these works is not to reproduce something in front of me,
but to make a painting that, at some point, takes on a life of its
own." In turn, Rovegno inspires with her unique mixture of reality
and whimsy, allowing the freedom for objects to take on a persona of
their own.
Artist Michael Schweigart is inspired by spring and summer, when everything
is fertile and coming to life. Previously primarily working with full
light to capture color at it's purest, this artist now favors a more
romantic mood, having a mysterious and rich tone with cool colors and
long shadows. He enjoys painting from a variety of points of view,
covering the vastness of the land, while at other times focusing on
more intimate details of the visual world with only a peek at a
distant landscape. Playing with this distance and intimacy,
Realist Schweigart renders with precision an exciting sense of nature that is
sure to inspire.
Artist Arthur Chartow believes that the written word and visual art are inherently
connected, as they are both signs or symbols that stand for something
more than what we are. One of the original purposes of art was to
tell stories to people who could not read. Describing how poetry is
represented through his landscape paintings, the artist shares that they are
"Transcendent, in the spiritual sense. Lyrical, in that my work is
more emotional than intellectual." A sunset conveys sadness; a sunrise
expresses a hopeful new beginning. In Chartow's opinion, landscape
conjures up the most poetic dialogue. He states about his oil paintings, "I think poetry in
its visual aspect is about the way the eye moves through the painted
space, in and out, left and right, up and down. It's about movement
created by color, shape and line, but apart from such formal aspects
it's also about how feeling and emotion is created." It is easy to
explore the spirituality that surrounds his representational art work, as artistic egotism
vanishes.
With pen or paint, paper or canvas, the marriage between these two mediums is melded into one powerful means of expression, typifying the world around us and the feelings that we experience within it.
