|
EXHIBITIONS ON VIEW
Palekh:
Icons to Souvenir Boxes to Icons
Joslyn Museum of
Art, Omaha, NE
September 20, 2008 - January
11, 2009
Museum of Russian
Icons, Clinton, MA
February - May 2009
Yaroslavl Madonna, early
20th century, Ivano Regional Museum
***
American
Artists from the Russian Empire
Fred Jones Jr.
Museum, Norman, OK
October 4, 2008 - January
4, 2009
State Russian
Museum, St. Petersburg
February 19, 2009 - May
25, 2009
State Tretyakov
Gallery
June 10, 2009 - August
23, 2009
San Diego Museum
of Art
October 10, 2009 - January
3, 2010
John Graham, Circus
Horse, 1942 (Hollis Taggart Galleries) |
Robert Bateman in Russia
In The Artist’s Words
… On Painting
I can’t conceive of anything being more
varied and rich than the planet Earth. And its crowning beauty is the
natural world. I want to soak it up, to understand it as well as I can,
and to absorb it… ad then I’d like to put it together and
express it in my painting. This is the way I want to dedicate my life.
Painting, for me, has never been a hobby. It is not relaxing –
writers and athletes would say the same. Since I was twelve, I have
always painted unless I am interrupted. It is a labor, but it is what
I do… a labor of love let us say.
I am often asked about the techniques and procedures for my work. First
and foremost is the idea or the thought behind the painting. Although
it is a joy to create something just for the sake of creating, it is
much more satisfying to create something special. It may not necessarily
be brilliantly executed, but ‘special’ means it comes from
the heart and experience unique to oneself.
One definition of a masterpiece I have heard… when you see it,
you should feel you are seeing it for the first time, and it should
look as if it is done without effort. This is a very, very tough yardstick.
I wouldn’t say that I’ve ever done a masterpiece, but when
I am struggling with each painting – and they are all a struggle
– I often feel that I am nowhere near those two goals. Sadly,
I feel much wildlife art is just the opposite. When you see it, you
feel you have seen it a thousand times before – yet another wolf,
or another loon, or some overworked subject done in the same old way.
And, it looks as if it is done with a great deal of effort – every
feather of every hair is painted in great detail, but no sense of form
or air or space or time, and often flat as pancake.
My own ideas come from many sources: it may be from a film, travels,
wildlife parks and zoos. Everyone has his or her own muse. That is the
fabulous thing about human creativity: each person is as unique as fingerprints
or zebra stripes. The muse must be cultivated and she will come to you
in unexpected ways. For subject mater reference, I avoid the spectacular
and obviously beautiful. This is a question of taste. I leave that department
to post cards. I have no need to paint it. Nowadays, I will deliberately
seek out the opposite of glorious… I find that nowadays, many
aspiring artists ‘cook up’ most of their picture, especially
the habitat. Whatever their reasons may be, they base their work on
the real world as their eyes have seen it. They make take liberties,
but reality is the base. Reality is my taste.
People often ask how long it takes me to do a painting. The answer is
– I don’t know. I work on five to fifteen at once. I like
them when I first start them, then they always get worse so I start
a new one to cheer me up. By the time the fifth one looks really awful
to me, the first one doesn’t look quite as bad, and a new idea
about it may have come along so I can work on it for a while. One took
me about six years on and off!
Living on Salt Spring Island on Canada’s West Coast allows me
to view the world with a bit of critical distance. The pace of island
life is slower than on the mainland, and the rhythms of the sea, the
shore and the forest are always close at hand. While I am painting,
scents and sounds waft in through the open windows of my studio. Even
though I am also surrounded by modern gadgets – phone, computer
and fax machine – that defy geography, this proximity to the world
as it was before technology and progress became our gods is my constant
reminder of something deeper – of just how great a responsibility
we have to achieve a state of peaceful co-existence between the human
world and the wild.
Robert Bateman
***
Remarkably gifted as a painter and naturalist, Robert Bateman is undoubtedly
the most celebrated wildlife artist working today. Born in Toronto,
Canada (1930), Bateman and his family now reside in Salt Spring, one
of the Gulf Islands lying between Vancouver Island and the British Columbia
mainland. Numerous books, art and nature conservation awards and sell-out
exhibitions attest to his pre-eminence in his chosen field of painting.
Bateman’s knowledge of the intricate relationships that characterize
the natural word has long set him apart from other wildlife artists
– he is that rare kind of artist – one who has truly influenced
the manner in which we perceive our environment.
Robert Bateman’s works can be found at the Art Gallery of Greater
Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia; Burlington Art Centre, Burlington;
Ontario, Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma; Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art
Museum, Wausau, Wisconsin; Denver Art Museum; Hamilton Art Gallery,
Ontario; Genesee Country Museum, New York; Glenbow Museum, Alberta;
National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson WY; and many private collections.
This is the first exhibition of Robert Bateman’s works in Russia.
|
