- Poster for “We See Differently” exhibit at CUNY Lehman
If you’ve attended an open life drawing session, not a class where an instructor is steering everyone down a similar path but a practice session for artists of all levels, you’ve probably had the experience of walking around the room on the breaks and noticing how very differently different artists are responding to the same subject. Everyone is seeing basically the same thing, but one will have bold hard slashing lines and another gentle clouds of color, in one the model will appear serene while in another he looks angry, one will look like a study of classical sculpture and another like an acid hallucination. It’s a dramatic demonstration of the power of representational art to reveal not just the subject, but the subjectivity of the artist.
Artist Daniel Galas, currently in a graduate program at CUNY’s Lehman College in the Bronx, has curated an exhibit based on that idea. He organized a free life drawing session, two days with the same model in the same pose, and invited a variety of artists to come to the session and submit their results for a show. The participants include Lehman art students and artists Daniel met at Spring Studio in Manhattan – the latter category includes me.
"We See Differently" #1, 2010, drawing by Fred Hatt
In the following example, Lenward Snead captured Tedra’s strong face in profile:
"We See Differently", 2010, drawing by Lenward Snead
Ray Rosario focused on the angular structure of the arms and shoulders and let the face merge into a cloud of light that defines an inky shadow around the body:
"We See Differently", 2010, by Ray Rosario
I got to know Kimchi Kim back in the 1990′s, when she was a regular at my movement drawing sessions. She’s a specialist in loose and lively gestural figures. Kim made multiple studies of the model’s feet, curving in opposite directions like the fishlike forms in the Taegeuk or yin-yang diagram. Kimchi Kim has a solo show opening this month at Spring Studio.
"We See Differently", 2010, by Kimchi Kim
James Horner is an artist and writes about art for the examiner website and his own blog. I believe the linear shapes in his abstract painting are derived from the model’s pose, but he certainly didn’t feel constrained to restrict himself to a physical depiction! Nonetheless, the colors and forms here make me feel happy.
"We See Differently", 2010, by James Horner
Daniel Galas, the organizer of the session and its exhibit, was an abstract painter doing cathartic expressions of inner states until he began to feel the need for an external focus in his work, which led him to take up the classic themes of landscape and portrait. His portraits all feature a certain controlled distortion, but powerfully capture the individuality of his sitters. They also show a fascination with the textural specifics of pores and blemishes. Daniel cites El Greco as an inspiration. To me, his work also evokes the cockeyed psychological realism of Alice Neel. Here is Daniel’s very large-scale charcoal portrait of Tedra:
"We See Differently", 2010, by Daniel Galas
I did a big face drawing too. It’s interesting to compare these two larger-than-life heads. To my eye, Daniel’s head of Tedra has the stony grandeur of an Easter Island moai, whereas mine has a much softer, maybe sad quality. Notice the difference in the size of the eyes relative to the head.
"We See Differently" #2, 2010, by Fred Hatt
These and many other visions from the same life drawing session will be on view in “We See Differently” in the basement gallery of the Fine Arts Building at CUNY Lehman, 250 Bedford Park Boulevard West in the Bronx. The opening reception is on Thursday, May 13, 2010, at 5 pm, and the show will remain on view through the Summer.
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14 Comments
DamnitFred! Since I left NYC eons ago I’ve never felt a need to go back.
My pompous, opinionated,narrow take is everything vital and exciting is happening here ’round the Ring of Fire, -the Pacific Rim & that you folks back east trade rocks and platitudes back & forth ‘cross the Atlantic and imagine it’s all real.
However… this and other posts of yours make me want to swing back by the old neighborhood.
Alas my whole world view that I’ve so carefully constructed over the passing years is shattered, I must admit, without equivocation, there is life, vitality, excitement east of the sunset!!!
In other words damn good show, both in the figurative and literal sense!
It’s a cool idea for an exhibit because only the models and artists who participate in open sessions like this would ordinarily see such diverse interpretations of the same pose (different perspectives, styles, media choices, etc.)
Jim, I’m sure there’s vital stuff we don’t even know about going on in all sorts of out of the way places. A lot of people I know think the most exciting contemporary artist today is William Kentridge, based in Johannesburg, RSA, nowhere near the Pacific Rim, the cultural capitals of Europe, or the Eastern U.S. wine-sipping snobs. Anywhere you go you’ll find amazing creative people, and honestly most of the really interesting stuff is below the radar, no matter where it is.
I’ve lived in NYC since the 80′s and I love it for its high energy and for its diversity, as it still attracts creative misfits from all over the world. But it’s been unfortunately transformed into a playground for the wealthy, and the old creative anarchy is now fragmented and feeble. I have to agree with Patti Smith, who recently advised young artists not to move to NYC.
Andrew, we (models and artists) see the work this way all the time and maybe take it for granted, but maybe art lovers have never been able to compare a diversity of visions this way. Such a simple but clear idea for a show.
Fred, the first thing that came to mind as I began to read this blog was WOW! Tedra must be an amazing and disciplined model to pose in the same pose, on and off of course, for two days. How long, all together, did she sit… Beautiful!
Liag, it was two days, four hours each day, with five minute breaks every 20 minutes and a 15 minute break in the middle of each session, I think. It’s not an unusual assignment for a model. Sometimes they do much longer. For example, here’s Claudia’s account of a two week pose. I’m not sure how many hours per day that is, but I think it’s ten days of the same pose.
Very interesting, Fred, and a further solidification of the basic belief that we all do indeed 'see differently'.
I like this concept a great deal. Nice work.
very nice..
Thanks, Rosa, Peter, Steve!
Fred,
Your statement: “It’s a dramatic demonstration of the power of representational art to reveal not just the subject, but the subjectivity of the artist” is an emphasis on blending what tended to be separate emphases in the impressionist and expressionist movements.
I think part of the point of this exhibit is that every drawing or painting reveals subjectivity, whether it’s trying to or not.
It’s always so fascinating to see the differing interpretations of the same subject. Great idea for an exhibition!
Read the link to the Patti Smith article in the blog. Depressing, but no doubt true, that Manhattan is no longer available to the ‘emerging artist’ – certainly not if the number of designer dress shops that I came across in my walking through the city is the case all over!
Jennifer, what has happened in the past 20 years is that every run-down neighborhood in Brooklyn or Queens that has been “colonized” by young artists has been, increasingly quickly, developed by real estate speculators, driving prices way up. It got to the point that it is impossible for young artists to congregate and develop a scene because the developers follow so closely behind them. So now they’re scattered all around the city, and the kind of underground fermentation that happened in Soho in the ’70′s or the East Village in the ’80′s or even Williamsburg in the ’90′s is really no longer possible.
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