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William Bartlett, Hope, 2003
Courtesy John Pence Gallery
San Francisco, California |
This spring the John Pence Gallery in San Francisco invited forty-two realist painters to consider what makes a painting allegorical. The resulting seventy work show was strikingly diverse, as artists played with the notion of abstract or spiritual meaning under the guise of material representation. Only a few tacked the subject head-on. Michael Bergt’s egg tempera
Follow the Leader (2003) places a nude, a trophy of Roman armor and a ramshackle, bell-headed slat mannequin in a desert landscape reminiscent of Monument Valley. But most of the artists in “Allegories” (generally working in oils) shied away from the tableaux vivantes of history painting in favor of more modest genres such as still life, figure in an interior and even portraiture. Jacob Collins’s portrait
Irma (2000) is terrific; seeing it in the context of this show makes the viewer reflect on the themes of wisdom and old age as exemplified by the formidable lady in black. Chris Thomas supplies a title,
Spirit of Cain (2003), for his portrait of a defiant young man that pushes the image toward the archetypal. William Bartlett’s
Hope (2003) is a clever take on the Pandora myth, with a serious little girl in a tenebrous attic contemplating a cardboard box lit from within to eerie effect. Steven J. Levin captures the alienating routine of the rat race in
Coming and Going (2004); the businessman simultaneously entering and leaving a nondescript lobby through a revolving door has the ennui of a Tooker subway passenger.
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Jacob Collins, Irma, 2000
Courtesy John Pence Gallery
San Francisco, California |
Some of the most persuasive work was in the still-life genre, beginning with Adam Forfang’s colorful
Vanitas (2004). Following Baroque convention, Forfang juxtaposes a bleached-out skull with bold orange fruit and a reflective brass vessel; replacing the usual oriental rug with a wide-striped blue and white cloth gives the composition a modern punch. Travis Schlat contributes a horizontal-format diptych.
Temperance and Intemperance (2004) offers clever before-and-after depictions of a sideboard at a wine tasting. Jacob A. Pfeiffer’s straightforward, vividly realistic picture of a trio of mirror-like stainless bowls overflowing with apples, oranges and lemons becomes emblematic of American bounty through its title,
The Fruited Plain (2003). For a change of pace, in
Battle of Jogkith (2000), Mikel Glass stages a surreal confrontation between armies of grotesque fruit in a wide-screen landscape.
Trompe l’oeil paintings make an attractive subgroup here. In homage to Magritte, Anthony Mastromatteo titles his work
Is Not (2003), the words emblazoned in thick black letters over wood grain, with a two-dollar bill “taped” on and a pocket watch casting a convincing shadow. Anthony Waichuli’s
Orchestrating the Drama (2003) centers on a simulacrum of a photograph of a skull poised on a pile of books and a painter’s palette; another faux photograph and drawings, along with a tone chart, are “taped” or “push-pinned” to the surface. It’s another astute variation on the Vanitas theme. John Pence Gallery, 750 Post Street, San Francisco, California 94109. Telephone (415) 441-1138. On the web at
www.johnpence.com
