Art Exhibit by New York/Israeli artist Max Ferguson.
HUC-JIR Museum,
One West 4th Street (between Broadway and Mercer Street), New York, NY 10012
Opening Reception May 8, 6 - 8:30 pm
Hours: Mon - Thurs 9 am to 5 pm; Friday, 9am to 3 pm.
April 16- June 29, 2012
"Despite spending so much time in Jerusalem, I continue to paint
primarily New York-themed imagery," says painter Ferguson, who divides
his time between New York and Jerusalem. "I don't want anyone ever
saying about me Oh, I didn't know he was Jewish. With my Ellis
Island name, people often assume I am not." His work is essentially
autobiographical, with his father and himself being his most frequent
models. It is his father who is the focus of this exhibition, showing
thirty paintings he has done of him over a thirty year period,
coinciding with what would have been his father's 100th birthday. His
paintings, at once timely and personal; timeless and universal, capture
the tones and moods of a rapidly changing New York. His concentrating on
images associated with an older New York (Coney Island, mom-and-pop
shops, etc.), stems not so much from nostalgia, as it does from a desire
to capture things while they are still here. Many of the subjects he
has painted have already gone the way of the wrecking ball, or been
renovated beyond recognition. Max Ferguson has worked on a number of
series including Coney Island, Jewish imagery, and people in the subway.
Max Ferguson (b.1959) is a New York/Israeli artist working in the artistic style, Hyperrealism. Hyperrealism is a genre of painting and sculpture resembling a high-resolution photograph. It focuses on detail and the subject utilizing subtle, pictorial elements to create the illusion of reality. Max approaches each of his paintings a little differently, but it usually begins when he transfers the lines of a drawing to a panel. Then he does a rough, thin underpainting layer using burnt umber, black and white. After this is completed he paints one or two more layers of underpainting in color. Lastly the final color layer is applied. This layering method creates the detailed and polished works that you see on the pieces in this exhibition.
His wife and their three children were all born in Jerusalem, and he has had his paintings exhibited at the Israel Museum.
Ferguson learned the discipline for his meticulously rendered paintings
while doing animated films as a teenager, graduating from New York
University film school in 1980. But it was while spending a year at an
art school in Amsterdam that his interest switched to painting. He
developed an enduring admiration for Dutch seventeenth-century painters
and has sought to integrate their concern for craftsmanship with
contemporary urban realism. As Ferguson says, "For me, the ideal
artistic marriage would be Vermeer and Hopper."
Ferguson is also known for the backs of his paintings, a unique hybrid of open diary, scrapbook, and messages in a bottle.
His works are in many prominent public and private collections,
including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Crystal Bridges Museum of
American Art, The British Museum, The Museum of the City of New York,
and Yeshiva University Museum.
In conjunction with this exhibition, curated by Laura Kruger, a fully
illustrated 32 page catalogue is being published, with an introduction
by noted art historian, Gail Levin.
http://huc.edu/museums/ny/
No comments:
Post a Comment