Collected Works
SELECTIONS FROM THE ESTATE OF PHYLLIS SLOANE 1
Collected Works SELECTIONS FROM THE ESTATE OF PHYLLIS SLOANE
June 15 - July 14, 2018
1005 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 Tel 505-954-5700 | www.gpgallery.com
Phyllis Sloane in her Santa Fe studio photo by Robert Bell
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A Personal Sense of Unity Phyllis Sloane received her B.F.A. degree in Industrial Design from Carnegie Tech in 1943. Her father, Nathan Lester, and her brothers were designers of industrial equipment. In her early years, her family moved frequently as her father took on more and more important roles in the world of design. She recalled that as soon as her father had finished the design of a product, he would begin to work on improving it. She said, “I am indebted to my father…for showing me by example the challenges and joys of pursuing a creative life.” Her own sense of order and the urge to experiment came from that creative environment and from her college training. She wrote in her journal, “The complex paintings are not a natural for me—my need for order compels me to simplify. There is a great deal of satisfaction in a perfectly balanced composition—a resting place—a calmness. However, not to the point of minimalism which is boring. Matisse can be complex and calm at the same time.” Sloane’s first love had always been painting, which she continued during a brief career in design. In 1959, she acquired a printing press which allowed her the freedom to experiment in a new medium, combining her fascination with machinery and her talent for art. She discovered that fine-grained cork board allowed her the freedom to cut expressive lines and, after some practice, she produced prints with extraordinarily rich blacks. As for her embracing different media, she wrote reflectively, “It could be the result of having moved every 2 years in my childhood—actually until I married. Is there a need to constantly shake things up? To disturb the equilibrium? And then to get it back?” Still Life with Fern, 1966 (Pl. 1), a cork cut print, recalls the paintings of Matisse whose combinations of complex patterns are rendered in vibrant color—a richness that is found in Sloane’s other work in silkscreens, watercolors and acrylics. It is easy to imagine the still life set up in Matisse’s studio with his palette of colorful oils nearby. It is more difficult to imagine his rendering the same set up in black and white. Yet, he knew the parallel. He observed, “A colorist makes his presence known even in a simple charcoal drawing.” A gifted colorist, Sloane reduced the still life to black and white. She wrote cryptically in her journal, “…black & white to clear head of extraneous elements and get back to the basic ones.
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Sometimes feel the need to shield the emotions and other times to reveal them. Might be the reason for selecting the medium. Harder to hide in drawings and monoprints which are most spontaneous—also the cork cuts to some extent. Looking back, the black and white cork cuts & black and white monoprints look very fresh to me.” As a woman coming of age in the 40s and 50s she knew women artists were often classed as “Sunday painters”, especially if they were married and raising a family. During that time she drew and painted her children and met with a group of friends once a week to draw from life. The life drawings became resources for her years later. In 1978 she bought a house in Santa Fe where she summered, keeping a studio in Cleveland – initially in her home, then in 1973 renting a studio in Little Italy. She moved permanently to Santa Fe in 2003, joining a long line of woman artists who experimented and flourished here from the early years of the 20th century. She added the studio to the Santa Fe house ca. 1999. Her masterful printmaking skills recall the etchings of Gene Kloss who settled in Taos over a generation earlier. Early on, Sloane signed her work with only her last name to overcome the prejudice against women artists. Kloss was born Alice Geneva Glaiser and changed her name entirely when she married the poet Phillips Kloss. Sloane worked through the various “isms” 1. Still Life with Fern, 1966 cork cut, 17 x 23 inches
of the 20th century, experimenting with abstraction, creating a series of Pop portraits, avoiding minimalism and continuing to explore
the possibilities of representational expression from paintings of rooftops to delicate drawings and prints of female nudes. In Santa Fe she began to work more with still life. She wrote, “my work has so much to do with shapes and composition,” and explained, “I am constantly adjusting and revising the elements in my work until they conform to a personal sense of unity.”
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Her still lifes are held together by her careful and idiosyncratic arrangement of the objects, sometimes with a woven belt or even a dressmaker’s tape measure draped sinuously through the arrangement almost literally tying it together. In Still Life with Decoy, 2000 (Pl. 2), the belt plays its role and is augmented by the placement of purple plums and a purple hyacinth blossom. Sloane admired the crisp outlines of Will Barnet’s figures and the unmodulated planes of color in his paintings and silkscreens. He had written, “You have to believe in what you’re doing. In the long run, you 2. Still Life with Decoy, 2000 acrylic on canvas, 54 x 48 inches
have to feel that what you’re doing, regardless of the trends, will have a lasting quality. Someday someone may pick it up and recognize that it was superior.”
Her silkscreen, Nude Resting, 1973 (Pl. 3), reflects her admiration for the Zen-like simplicity of Japanese prints and recalls the work of Barnet. Yet, it is she, fully in command of her skill and her tools and blessed with the exploratory curiosity that continued to motivate her when she made the print at the age of 85. This simply elegant print is by an artist at the peak of her powers. It is a work with the lasting quality Barnet spoke of. Sloane’s work from her over 60 year career is as fresh today as it was when she created it—and it will remain so.
John O’Hern Santa Fe Editor American Art Collector 3. Nude Resting, 1973 silk screen 11 1/2 x 15 inches, paper, 8 x 10 inches
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Still Life with Clown, 1997 watercolor, 21 x 38 1/4 inches $6,800.00
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Collected Works SELECTIONS FROM THE ESTATE OF PHYLLIS SLOANE
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Boxed Produce 1, 1994 watercolor, 11 x 28 inches $6,000.00
Still Life with Pear, Boxes, Candle, 1996 watercolor on paper, 36 x 42 inches $7,500.00
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Still Life with Belt, 1989 watercolor on paper, 19 1/4 x 27 3/4 inches $7,000.00
Collection II (with radishes), 1993 watercolor on paper, 13 1/4 x 30 1/4 inches $6,000.00
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Still Life with Oriental Fan, 1997 watercolor on paper, 29 x 41 inches $7,000.00
Still Life with Puppet, 1991 acrylic on canvas, 48 x 54 inches $15,000.00 12
Still Life with African Purse, 1996 acrylic on canvas, 54 1/8 x 48 1/8 inches $15,000.00
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Still Life with Fish Lure, 1984 watercolor on paper, 21 x 29 inches $6,000.00
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Reflections, 1993 watercolor, 36 x 43 1/2 inches $10,000.00
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“My work has so much to do with shapes and composition...I am constantly adjusting and revising the elements in my work until they conform to a personal sense of unity.�
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Still Life with Decoy, 2000 acrylic on canvas, 54 x 48 inches $15,000.00
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Still Life with Daffodils, 2000 acrylic on paper, 49 x 38 inches $12,000.00
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Still Life with Coffee Server, 1993 acrylic on canvas, 20 x 24 inches $7,500.00
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Still Life with Napkin, 2001 acrylic on canvas, 32 x 32 inches $9,000.00
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Mannekin with Aloe, c. 1980s acrylic on canvas, 48 x 48 inches $12,000.00
Santa Fe Still Life oil on canvas, 30 x 36 inches $9,000.00 21
Santa Fe Still Life, 1985 acrylic on masonite, 24 x 32 inches $8,000.00
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Still Life with Japanese Lanterns, 1998 acrylic on canvas, 31 x 47 inches $10,000.00
Collected Works: Selections from the Estate of Phyllis Sloane June 15 - July 14, 2018 Gerald Peters Gallery 1005 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe, NM 87501 Essay by: John O’Hern Catalogue Direction: Evan Feldman Photography: Molly Wagoner Graphic Design: Shane Mieske Cover Image: Still Life with Folded Picasso All Images © 2018, Phyllis Sloane Art, LLC., courtesy Gerald Peters Gallery. © 2018 Gerald Peters Gallery. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, including photocopying, recording or information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
1005 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 Tel 505-954-5700 | www.gpgallery.com