David Bates
October 11 - November 5, 2005
Opening Reception Saturday, October 15 from 6:00 to 7:30 pm
This new body of work shows David Bates exploring the Grassy Lake region of western Arkansas with vigor and vision, rediscovering what he loves about the area and unearthing a treasure trove of new pleasures as well. Bates has reduced the scale of his work, presenting intense, jewel-like landscapes and portraits of birds alongside larger oil paintings on paper which explore multiple views of bird and flower species.
“After an introspective period, coinciding with the loss of my parents, the concept of visiting an old friend -- Grassy Lake -- was comforting and seemed a perfect way to get back to the joy of life,” Bates explains. “All of the experiences of the last twenty years have deepened and enrichened these new paintings of Grassy Lake.”
David Bates was born in Dallas, Texas in 1952. He studied at Southern Methodist University, earning a BFA in 1975 and an MFA in 1978. In 1976, Bates was chosen to participate in the independent study program at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The resulting year in New York exposed him to a variety of influences and he experimented with a wide range of media and styles. After returning to Dallas the following year, Bates started to explore his lifelong love of folk art and his deep affinity for the South, its people, and their physical and cultural landscape. He began to draw upon these interests as special strengths that served to further his development as an artist.
David Bates first visited Grassy Lake in the summer of 1982 and was immediately captivated by the area’s strange beauty -- a visually complex primeval environment of swamps and cypresses. The landscape, people, flora and fauna of Grassy Lake remained a major source of inspiration for Bates until 1989, when he made a conscious break with the area in order to immerse himself in the world of the Texas Gulf Coast.
* * *
DC Moore Gallery specializes in twentieth century and contemporary art. The gallery is located on the eighth floor of 724 Fifth Avenue between 56th and 57th Streets and is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 to 5:30. Press viewings can be arranged prior to the exhibition. For more information, for photographs, or to arrange a viewing, please call Sandra Paci at 212-247-2111.
DC Moore Gallery Press Contact:
Sandra Paci
212-247-2111
Helen Miranda Wilson
October 11 - November 5, 2005
Opening Reception Saturday, October 15 from 6:00 to 7:30 pm
Helen Miranda Wilson’s recent calendar paintings serve as an abstract of her daily life. They contain no recognizable subject matter, using only the classic language of color and form. Although she did a series of similar works on paper in the 1970s, these new paintings may come as a surprise to followers of Wilson’s representational work.
The paintings are laid out in plain, flat patches of oil paint. The demarcations are handmade, often blurring softly into one another. The edges of the panels retain the drips of primer, which have been sanded smooth and are meant to be seen as part of the image. Except for the influence and succession of adjacent colors, there is no obvious suggestion of narrative description.
“Over the last six years my life has changed and so has my work: I now have two jobs,” Wilson explains. “I'm still an artist. But I also serve as an elected official, doing public service in the town I grew up in. After many years spent working in the cloister of my studio, I am now required to deal with the enormous reality of my community and its environment . I spend many long hours at meetings and preparing for them. I absorb relevant data in the same way I used to paint objects or skies. This has diminished my desire to work from observation, to paint while looking at what I'm painting. It has refreshed my need for the mute privacy and entirely self-chosen quality of my life in art but has reduced my appetite for dealing with the world as it really is.”
Technically, the calendar paintings are as difficult to make as her previous work. Formally, they are much simpler: one piece of color is placed next to another in a literal representation of the saying "one day at a time". The artist’s appointment calendar -- with a different rectangle for each day all on one page -- is an ongoing reference. Each panel corresponds generally to events in Wilson’s daily life at the time they were painted. The practice of making them serves as a focusing, calming exercise. Flags, quilts, shields, honeycombs (Wilson is a beekeeper) and cultivated fields as seen from an airplane provide an additional visual vocabulary.
“There is no illusion of space and no recognizable subject matter in these pictures,” Wilson continues. “This means that what remains must carry the whole burden of meaning. Almost every color looks beautiful and right to me next to every other color and this is a surprise The practice of painting in this way makes me calm and gives me focus.”
In December of 2004, Wilson curated a group show at DC Moore as an homage to other artists who have also used the minimal, powerful language of geometric abstraction.
* * *
DC Moore Gallery specializes in twentieth century and contemporary art. The gallery is located on the eighth floor of 724 Fifth Avenue. Press viewings can be arranged prior to the exhibition. For more information, for photographs, or to arrange a viewing, please call Sandra Paci at 212-247-2111.
