Spaightwood Galleries
Updated 7/21/01
Drawings from the late 15th century to the early 21st
June 8 to August 19, 2001
Claude Garache (French, b. 1929), Epiaire (Y. 18756). Watercolor, 1974. Garache was the subject of a monograph by Jean Starobinski and his drawings were recently the subject of a book by Jacques Dupin, perhaps the world's leading expert on Joan Miro, who, along with Marc Chagall, recommended Garache to Aime Maeght back in 1966, beginning an association that lasted until recently with Galerie Maeght and Galerie Lelong. Spaightwood Galleries has shown Garache's work since 1982. Image size: 210x220mm. Price: $3275.
Fitting Form
Exhibit sketches the history of drawing
By Amanda Henry, Wisconsin State Journal
11 August 2001
By Amanda Henry, Wisconsin State Journal
11 August 2001
You can’t accuse Spaightwood Galleries proprietors Andrew and Sonja Weiner of a lack of ambition. Their latest show, "Drawings from the late 15th century to the early 21st," covers as much ground as a back-packing college kid with a rail pass. From examples of the early Flemish school to works that are mere months old, the show is framed as a boundary-hopping look at a subject that is none too narrow: the art of drawing.
Fortunately, there is no attempt to impose a scientific taxonomy on this vast category. The history of the medium is sketched out, not carved in stone, allowing viewers to draw their own conclusions about the style, function, and skill of each individual piece.
"Drawings do very different things," notes Andrew Weiner. "Sometimes drawings are for giving away, and sometimes drawings are the property of the studio."
In the Spaightwood show, polished pieces that have been handed down across generations hang next to the work of anonymous amateurs. There are drawings that clearly served as studies for later paintings, and pencilled doodles that suggest the whim of a moment.
"I like the spontaneity of it," Weiner notes of an anonymous drawing of a church by an early 19th century traveler. The piece appears to be part of an illustrated diary, and the loving execution is even more impressive given the drawings personal rather than public intent.
Although the idea for this show first occurred to the Weiners after they acquired a significant number of Old Master drawings at an estate sale, it is the mix of venerable and fresh that makes the exhibit interesting. One of the show’s most compelling sections links figure drawing and portraiture from various time periods, and it is fascinating to see how well-suited pencil, ink and charcoal are to capturing the human face and form. Whether loosely evoking the body as a tissue of fluid outlines, or precisely rendering an emotional state through intricate pencil shadings, these drawings suggest one of the unique properties of their medium: breathing life into the human form.
In contrast to the almost ghostly lines that linger on pages centuries old, the contemporary drawings have a more vivid emotional thrust. Jonna Rae Brinkman’s pastels are abstract whorls of color, while Gerard Titus-Carmel’s serene meditations on "l’Automne" evoke the shades and shape of a fall leaf clinging to the branch. The glowing orange of Claude Garache’s watercolor drawings of women marry the loving eye for detail seen in earlier figure drawings with a uniquely subjective aura.
From the minimalist whimsy of a Joan Miro print in which the artist’s signature fills most of the page to intricate compositions designed for ancient altars and gilded ceilings, the Spaightwood exhibit offers many pages from the portfolio of drawn art. By including work from everyone from legends to artful dabblers, the show also offers tantalizing glimpses of a form that can be accessible, portable, swift, and immortal.
Anonymous (English, early 19th century), St. Clement's Church, Oxford. Ink and watercolor on laid paper, 1826. A work by a talented amateur whose main interest seems to have been church architecture. Image size: 178x112mm. Price: $850.
Anonymous (19th-century, German?), Young woman. Pencil on blue green tinted paper. Long repaired tear snaking its way up from the lower left to the left shoulder. On the verso is the name "Klitsch," to whom I have found no reference; Benezit lists a Joseph Kleitsch (b. in Banad in 1885) who studied in Chicago, Budapest, Munich, and Paris. He won a gold medal and a silver medal at the Club of Painters and Sculptors. There are also several drawings by Ingres that make one wonder whether he might be a candidate for authorship. In any case, after looking at photographs of several thousand 19th-century drawings, we can only say that whoever drew this piece was a master: this is one of the most tender, wistful, and lovely drawings of its kind that we have ever seen. Image size: 261x203mm. Price: $1800.
Joan Miro (Spanish, 1893-1983), Sans le Soleil Composition III. Original etching & aquatint with calligraphic pencil signature as the major design element of the work, 1965. Signed in pencil and numbered 2/25. Image size: 222x285mm Image size: 222x285mm. Price: $3,100.
Gerard Titus-Carmel (French, b. 1942), L'Automne III. Watercolor 1994. Every day during the Autumn of 1994, Titus-Carmel would sit down at the desk in his study, observe the play of light upon a tree near his house, and then paint. Image size: 237x144mm. Price: $4500.
