Category: ARCHIVE of the TWENTIETH CENtURY

Pony, Oil and pigmented glue on canvas, Approx. 50″ x 48″, circa 1990

Elusive flying pony. Fallen skater. Two poles divided and united. Ambivalence between fear and dreams.

Technique
This was created in the rooftop studio at 142 Roebling Street in Brooklyn when the rest of the building was still occupied by garment workers. The painting has an underdrawing of natural wood charcoal submerged in hot liquid glue that temporarily suspends the charcoal dust and then dries into the canvas to make an impervious drawing. Layers of transparent oil paint and pigmented turpentine washes complete the image.

Magic Hat Trick, Oil and bound charcoal on canvas, Approx. 50″ x 48″, circa 1990
Collection Peter Corens, NY

Sometime in the late eighties or early nineties I was doing a belly crawl through the stacks at the New York Public Library for archival illustrated books on the topic of magic. I encountered a late nineteenth century edition of a book simply entitled Saltimbanque.

Hunter, Oil and bound charcoal on canvas, Approx. 50″ x 48″, circa 1990
Collection Peter Corens, NY

Cracked Putti oil on canvas, approx. 44″ x 46″ circa 1991

Panopticon Prison; oil on canvas, approx. 44″ x 46″ circa 1991

In the late eighties those of us who were grappling with post-modernism and the impact of European philosophy on American painting looked to memes such as the panopticon as recurring motifs. Covered in some depth by Foucault, the panopticon was a prison design that provided lines of sight for guards so that they could command a view of hundreds of prisoners from a single vantage point. The panopticon became emblematic of a society of control, of the insidious and ineluctable streams of power that run through culture and society.

Dwarf Puppet Execution by Guillotine, Oil and embedded charcoal on canvas, approx. 42″ x 42″ circa 1991
Collection of the artist

The People Tree, oil and embedded charcoal on canvas, approx. 42″ x 42″ circa 1991