Self-portrait as Landscape. 1999. Oil on canvas with charcoal. 30”l x 24”w
A WALK THROUGH THE GALLERY
Exhibit curator, Sigrid Trumpy, met with fellow artists Neil Harpe and Cassandra Kabler to explore this show together. We hope you’ll enjoy their walk through the gallery.
“The puzzle is in the title: where do you see the landscape in this painting? The self-portrait here is in transition with landscape. Although this is a straight-on, very direct portrait, it is as if you are looking into his mind to a memory of a landscape.”
-Cassandra Kabler
ANOTHER FRAME OF REFERENCE
Each of us brings our own perspective as we engage with the works in this show. Included here are additional references we hope enrich and expand your experience.
“Posing” by Elliott Zuckerman
Someone must sit for me, for I can’t pose
My riddles to a plaster god,
One of those studio Apollos,
A paradigm too Greek to grapple with.
Imaginings must feed
Upon a blemish in the gaze,
Follow the misdirections of the brow,
Thrive on the dissonance of chin and cheek.
There must be something there that’s almost mine,
Its nature specified by whether nose
Is pug, or African, or aquiline.
Ready for fleshing from the loaded brush,
The lip should be a wish
That’s picturable in private, the orange spot
In my Corot, the apricot
In fields of green.
As for the rest,
O you who pose while I predict,
Your ears have touched me far beyond the act
Of touching. They deflect,
Waiting like pets to be caressed.
(from “The Shape of an Ear”, a collection of poems by Elliott Zuckerman, 2002.)
