BRAD REUBEN KUNKLE It was during Arcadia Gallery's lnternational Introductions exhibition this past |une that viewing Brad Reuben Kunkle's paintings became an "interactive experience" and quickly became a crowd pleaser. Influenced by the works of master Art Nouveau painter, Gustav Klimt, the young painter incorporates gold and silver leaf into his oil paintings. His use of dramatic and romantic imagery combined with the leal creates ominous and elegant mood shifts in the paintings that, with the simple flick of a light switch, can completely change the work's intensity and dimension. Born in rural Pennsylvania, Brad Reuben Kunkle spent his younger years exploring and romanticizing the beauty of the sparse countryside and the deep forests around him. From an early age he was drawn to the worlds of Maxfield Parrish and the Pre-Raphaelites - worlds, he says, "where a subtle, supernatural beauty seems to be hiding under the breath of women worlds where something beyond our natural perception is waiting to be found." He studied painting at Kutztown University mostly under George Sorrels, who was taught by a pupil of
-
the 19th centuryAcademic painter, William Adolphe Bouguereau. Filled with academic principles, Brad felt confident in his ability, but stifled by the structure of schools and
dissatisfied
with the boundaries
of traditional imagery.
Brad Kunkle's naturalistic painting "Eidlon" measures 64 x i6 inches aiil is achieyed through a unique combination of oil paints and the application of 24K gold and silver leaf.
based
In an effort to discover his own artistic sensibilities, he
worked as a commission-
portraitist, and began an almost decade-long
journey of continued self-instruction and independent study.
Brad was searching for an unnatural quality in his paintings, and it was ironically discovered by reducing his processes to the elements of painting he felt came most natural to him. His minimal palette is inspired by the grisailles of early European masters and the haunting quality of antique photographs and daguerreotypes. "Grisaille has a mysterious quality to it, and that mysterious quality is also at times carried into the
will treat an object or a dress. Sometimes I like to give just enough information for the viewer to finish the details of what they are seeing." As a decorative painter in his mid twenties, he leafed way I
entire walls
in copper. He was beguiled
by the shifting, life-like nature
ofthe
surfaces,
and began to
incorporate gilding in his work. This proved to ful-
fill the unreal quality he had been looking for to convey his moody,
"The Cage" by Brad l(unkle measures 30 x 32 inches and the entire painting, as with all of Kunkle's works, "transforms" as the light hits the work during yarious times of the day.
romantic ideas of human nature and ritual. "The use of gold and silver in my paintings serve two main functions - the first being symbolic. Gold and silver serve as symbols in many ways but to begin with, they are'material'symbols in harsh contrast to the spiritual or intangible aspects of life. The shifting of the leafed skies and wallpapers are also symbolic of the ever-changing world we live in. Furthermore, gold is the single most controversial element in the history of mankind. It causes wars, brings death, happiness and beauty - symbolizes love, power, greed, and religion... it's symbolic properties are
just
as malleable as it's physical properties. The second function of the leaf is to react directly with the viewer. As one walks across a room or dims the lights, they are affecting the painting and the painting is affecting them. The paintings become a living, breathing thing to me when the leaf is shifting and the oil is quiet. The art literally becomes interactive and can give the work a supernatural quality. The use of grisaille, or an adaptation of grisaille, against the leaf can give the sense of a very surreal space and unnatural depth within the paintings." Brad says, "I paint to connect with the part of being human that is beautiful and slightly dark, stripped to it's truth and always changing - The part of being human that appears to be romantic, but feels very real." Brad Reuben Kunkle is currently working on new paintings for his very first, one-man exhibition of works in April of 2010 at Arcadia Gallery.
llr .\l l i i'lll.\S -\\ irl.r.:r )\
et to run Nor,ember 13-15, the l3th annuai Boston Intenmtiortril Fine Art Show (BIi.AS) brings together 40 exhibitors from across the U.S. and Europe presenting an array of contemporary and traditional paintings, sculpture, works on paper, and photography. Produced bi,Tonl' Fusco and Robert Four, this is the leading shorv of its kind in Ner.v Eng1and, and this year's exhibitor list is the strongest ever. I'he fair kicks off with a benefit prer.ieiv on Thursday, Noven.rber 12. The next evening's programrrring focuses on new collectors and ir-rcludes an illustrated ralk by Fine Art Connoisseur editor Peter Trippi at 7.30 p.r.r.r. On Sunday, November 15, at 2 p.m., Roy Dar,ves of Brandeis
University's Rose
Art
Museum
(\Valtham, Massachusetts) rvill discuss his
institution's collection of
modern and contemporary art. (Ap-
parently this in.rportant group of u,orks will remair.r intact, despite the
controversy about its possible dispersal that has raged during the past 1.ear.) On sale after Darves's talk rvill
be the impressive 288-page book about the Rose N,Iuseum, its holdings, and its history that hns just beer.r published by Abrams. Fr-rsco and Four are offerir.rg
$5 off admission to r.isitors preser.rting the BIFAS ad that appeared in the October 2009 issue of r*ine Art Connoisseur. They har.e also arranged for all BIFAS ticketholders to get $5 off admission to the concurrent B o stort Inter national Attti r1u ar i an B o ok F ai r. Presentecl at the Hynes Conr,ention Center nearb1., this fair r,r.ill offer an ample selection of ar.rtique maps, a subject explored in the October 2009 issue of Fine Art Connoisseur.
Bnro Kur'xr (a. 1978) Trc CrcT
2009, Oru
I'IAI"l'HIAS ANDL,RSON
is o
contributirtg wrlrer ro Fine Art (lonnoisseur
Information: Boston Internatiorral Finc Art Shorv, 'l'he Cycloranta,
Boston Center.for the Arts, 539'l)'emont Street, Boston, L'tA 02116,617.363.0105, fineartboston.corn.
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FINE ART CONNoTSSEUR.COM
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November/December 2oo9
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vrw ar BIFAS or'r ne
LEAF oru
pnnrL,
30 x 32
sTAND 0F ARcADIA FINE ARTS,
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