Michael Rosenfeld Gallery exhibits paintings and works on paper by Benny Andrews
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Saturday, November 9, 2024


Michael Rosenfeld Gallery exhibits paintings and works on paper by Benny Andrews
Benny Andrews (1930-2006), Portrait of the Portrait Painter (Portraits of... Series), 1987, oil and graphite on two canvas panels with painted fabric collage, 80 x 100 x 3/4 inches / 203.2 x 254 x 1.9 cm, signed.



NEW YORK, NY.- Michael Rosenfeld Gallery is presenting its third solo exhibition for Benny Andrews (American, 1930–2006), showcasing portraits—a vital and constant genre throughout the artist’s oeuvre. Benny Andrews: Portraits, A Real Person Before the Eyes features 35 portraits, represented by paintings and works on paper created between 1957 and 1998. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully-illustrated color catalogue with new scholarship by Jessica Bell Brown, Associate Curator for Contemporary Art, The Baltimore Museum of Art; Connie H. Choi, Associate Curator, Permanent Collection, The Studio Museum in Harlem; and Kyle Williams, Director of the Andrews-Humphrey Family Foundation.

Benny Andrews: Portraits, A Real Person Before the Eyes traces Andrews’ commitment to portraiture, beginning in 1957 with Andrews’ seminal collage painting Janitors at Rest, and including portraits of fellow artists Marcel Duchamp, Ludvik Durchanek, Norman Lewis, Ray Johnson, Alice Neel, and Howardena Pindell, and also of his father George C. Andrews, and wife, Nene Humphrey. While Andrews created portraits of people he knew, as well as of himself, portraiture also served as a vehicle through which he could metaphorically express the personification of ideas, thoughts, emotions and values.

In his deeply humanizing portraits, Andrews employed his signature and pioneering use of paint and collage to build surface in order to create depictions composed of fleshy tactility, extending his sitters into three-dimensional space as a way of reinforcing their human presence and defining their distinct characteristics, since “collage provided him with a degree of depth and breadth not found in painterly realism.”[2] Indeed, his discovery of collage and texture was a way to construct surface in order to affirm his interest in both the individual and shared experience of humanity. His powerful depictions of people—both named and unnamed—reinforce his deep connection to the emotional soul of mankind.

Searching for a visual language to capture the immediacy of everyday life and the quotidian nature of his subject matter, Andrews first developed his “rough collage” technique, combining scraps of paper and cloth with oil paint on canvas, as a student. He honed this technique in a breakthrough period during his studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, when, in 1957, he was struck by the school’s African American janitors and created the pivotal Janitors at Rest, which first introduced collage into his painting. This critical component would inform the rest of his artistic career. The work—begun during his last year of school—became a turning point for him as he began to completely devote himself to painting. At the same time, he began studying with the painter Boris Margo (1902-1995), “the instructor who had encouraged him to paint what he knew, what he felt.”[3] Indeed, Andrews was inspired by the janitors and their environment, studying their faces and experimenting with their materials—like towels and toilet tissues. The artist wrote:




“I placed the two little wads of tissues on a stool in front of my newly stretched canvas and sat back and started to think, Who are these men? They are the school janitors to us, Black and White, but in their minds they were much more. Yet here I am trying to think of some way to express my feelings for them that transcends the superficial jobs that they are stuck with, but how? I started fingering the two wads of paper and I thought, ‘Why not paste it on my canvas with no prescribed idea of designs or even picture, just paste it on at random. I know it is representative of an environment that they exist in, so if I put that on my canvas, and started playing around with ideas of them and so forth, maybe I’ll come up with an idea that is not so commonplace.’ I did that and then I started painting their faces. I smeared paint. I kept turning the canvas around, and I even went back to the men’s room a couple of times to talk with them that afternoon. I started working with collage that way, and I have been using it ever since.”[4]

In her essay for the exhibition’s catalogue, Jessica Bell Brown writes of Andrews’ remarkable portraits: “Taken together, these works signal what it means to be at once the beholder and image-maker, to open new portals for irreducible sensibilities unique to those being portrayed. Andrews’ empathetic brush has over the course of time straddled the line between inventiveness and observation, and honed the ability to truly grapple with all the complexities of identity and self-making. In this contemporary moment of evident and renewed socio-political reckoning, Andrews’ portraits are faithful models for holding space for the expansiveness of subjectivity and personhood in American art.”[5]

In 2008, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC became the representative of the Benny Andrews Estate and this exhibition has been organized with their cooperation.


[1] Benny Andrews, in Henri Ghent, “Oral history interview with Benny Andrews,” June 30, 1968, transcript, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, http://www.bennyandrews.com/andrews-and-ghent.
[2] Pellom McDaniels III, “A Love of Everything: Benny Andrews, American History, and the Politics of Representation,” Benny Andrews: The Bicentennial Series (New York: Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, 2017), 17.
[3] J. Richard Gruber, American Icons: From Madison to Manhattan, the Art of Benny Andrews, 1948-1997 (Augusta, GA: Morris Museum of Art, 1997), 84.
[4] Benny Andrews, quoted in ibid, 86.
[5] Jessica Bell Brown, “In Excess of Realism: Benny Andrews’ Composites,” in Benny Andrews: Portraits, A Real Person Before the Eyes (New York: Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, forthcoming).










Today's News

September 27, 2020

Making art when 'lockdown' means prison

New research leads to exciting re-attribution of important Renaissance plaquette

White Cube announces representation of the estate of Takis

'All you can view' museum treat for Dutch art lovers

Delay of Philip Guston retrospective divides the art world

The original 'Spider-Woman' cover that sparked outrage, and forced Marvel to apologize, heads to auction

Exhibition of new work by Gregory Crewdson opens at Gagosian Beverly Hills

Blue Star Contemporary innovates with first ever Augmented Reality Red Dot Art sale and exhibition

This carousel has had quite a ride. Will anyone in Japan save it?

Exhibition at Dallas Museum of Art features 13 new acquisitions, including new work by Dallas artists

Freeman's inaugural Ritual and Culture Auction achieves strong results

New book offers a fascinating and delightfully offbeat look at the untold stories of the art history world

London Transport Museum exhibition scoops top national award

Historic Canongate tenements returned to former glory

Victoria Miro announces representation of Doron Langberg

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery exhibits paintings and works on paper by Benny Andrews

Sotheby's Hong Kong Autumn 2020 Sale series to be held from 3-9 October

GOFO ART and China Guardian join hands to launch fundraising campaign

Dance on film is the only game in town. BalletX takes the field.

Charl Landvreugd appointed Head of Research & Curatorial Practice at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

The collection of British tokens formed by John Rose to be sold at Dix Noonan Webb

Steidl publishes 'Juergen Teller: Plumtree Court'

Michael Jordan jerseys expected to each surpass $300,000 at Heritage Auctions

Abstract Expressionism leads a successful sale at Shannon's

Top 6 Android Tracking Apps for Kids

Fruit slots, for games that are truly timeless

Finding the Best Website for Playing Games Online? -Here it is

A Complete Guide About Bitcoin To Help Newbies!!!

Consider these things while shifting from traditional trading to Bitcoin trading.




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Holistic Dentist
Abogado de accidentes
สล็อต
สล็อตเว็บตรง

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful