DAVID STERN
HEROES & GRACES
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Cover: Heroes and Graces, Woman 2, 2018, acrylic and pigments on paper, 30x22 in.
Ellipsis Art is an art advisory firm that provides a full range of services in art acquisition, collection management, and curatorial advice. Our mission is to create a direct dialogue between collectors and select artists and artists’ estates. By working exclusively with artists and their estates, we create a unique opportunity for collectors to acquire art directly from artists.
ANGELICA SEMMELBAUER / Art Advisor angelica@ellipsis-art.com
DAVID STERN
HEROES & GRACES Meditation on gender At the core of my new works from the series ‘Heroes and Graces’, which I began in 2012, is my philosophical meditation on gender, as we experience it in the 21st Century, with references to ancient mystical traditions and understanding of the many facets of gender and gender relations. Gender, as I call the affection between the sexes, is a temporary release from the prison of the physical form. ‘Gaol’, a medieval English word, which originated from Latin and translates literally as “little cage”, is shifting in and out of its figurative existence. It is a living testimony to the struggle of the two sides of human reality - the female part of making forms and the male part of conceiving ideas. In Jewish Mysticism, as expressed in the cabalistic tradition, there are the conceptual values attributed to the male-female world, the world of + and - , receptiveness and formation. Contrary to Western belief, the male side is characterized as the receptive part and the female as the forming part. Making something, i.e. physical transformation, shaping a block of marble into a sculpture, or forming fluid paint into shapes, needs the female character traits of discipline, endurance and strength. The openness, inspiration, and idea are characterized as male qualities, preluding the formative part. In line with Jewish Mysticism, I perceive the union of the female and male principle as a momentous reprieve from the dichotomy of our reality and as the true governing principle of creative powers. The reconciliation of two in one, the work, the creation as a third principle. My latest works speak of the desire to clarify positions, reflecting the Western Worlds’ uncertainty and state of confusion about the conceptual values of gender. - David Stern
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“The substance that artists move around, whether it is clay, bronze, or oil, has to come to life, or mimic life by shining, gleaming, catching the eye and ultimately living on its own. As in alchemy, it is not enough merely to bring life to the inert pigments: the painter also has to toy with death, to bring the paint close to the point of no return in order to make it more convincing in the end. In the alchemical phrase: it is necessary to kill in order to create. ” - James Elkins, Author of “What Painting Is”
Heroes and Graces, Three Graces 4, 2019, acrylic and pigments on paper, 27x39 in.
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Heroes and Graces, Three Graces 3, 2019, acrylic
c and pigments on paper, 29 1/2 x 42 1/2 in. SOLD
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Heroes and Graces, Three Graces 1, 2019, acrylic and pigments on paper, 27x39 in.
Heroes and Graces, Three Graces 6, 2019, acrylic and pigments on paper, 27x39 in.
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Heroes and Graces, Woman 3, 2018, acrylic and pigments on paper, 30x22 in.
Heroes and Graces, Woman 4, 2018, acrylic and pigments on paper, 30x22 in.
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Heroes and Graces, Woman 034, 2018, a
acrylic and pigments on paper, 27x39 in.
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Heroes and Graces, Woman 004, 2019, acrylic and pigments on paper, 27x39 in.
Heroes and Graces, Three Graces 7, 2019, acrylic and pigments on paper, 27x39 in.
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Heroes and Graces, Woman 004, 2019, acrylic and pigments on paper, 27x39 in.
Heroes and Graces, Woman 001, 2019, acrylic and pigments on paper, 27x39 in.
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Heroes and Graces, Three Graces 5, 2019, acrylic and pigments on paper, 27x39 in.
Heroes and Graces, Woman 003, 2019, acrylic and pigments on paper, 27x39 in.
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Three Graces, 2016, oil and pigments and canvas, 71x81 in. (SOLD)
Three Graces, 2016, oil and pigments and canvas, 71x81 in.
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Baroque (woman), 2014, oil and pigments on canvas, 48x39 in.
Woman with credentials, 2014, oil and pigments on canvas, 60x43 in.
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Heroes and graces, 012019, acrylic and pigments on canvas, 52x64 in.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2011 David Stern: Five Paintings, Messineo Art Projects/Wyman Contemporary, New York, January 27 – March 13 2010 David Stern: The American Years (1995-2008) national traveling exhibition curated by Karen Wilkin, The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, Charleston, SC, August 26-October 8, 2010 2009 Cold Cuts – The American Years, Galerie Brennecke, Berlin, October 24- December 3, 2009 Selections from “One Hundred Simple Things,” Messineo Art Projects/Wyman Contemporary, New York, May 14 – July 16 2008-09 David Stern: The American Years (1995-2008), national traveling exhibition curated by Karen Wilkin, Yeshiva University Museum, New York, September 18, 2008-February 8, 2009 Alexander Hogue Gallery, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, October 30-November 28 2005-06 David Stern at The Starrett-Leihigh (project 1740), NYC presented by Claudia Carr, November 15-December 20 2004 David Stern: Braces and Shadows, Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Art, NYC, April 28-June 3 2002 David Stern: The Gatherings, Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Art, NYC, October 10-November 16 2001 David Stern: Common Ground, Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Art, NYC, April 25-May 26 2000 David Stern: Recent Paintings, Louis Stern Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, April 27-June 3 1999 David Stern: Random Cycles, Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Art, NYC, October 12-November 13 David Stern: Recent Work, William Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, College of Charleston, SC, September 2-25 1998 David Stern: New Paintings, Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Art, NYC, April 28-May 30 1997 David Stern, Galerie Joachim Blüher, Cologne, Germany 1996 David Stern: Skypieces and Portraits, Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Art, NYC, September 11-October 19 1995 David Stern: Drawings and Paintings, Synagogue for the Arts, NYC, May 10-June 11 Galerie Brennecke, Berlin, Germany 1994 David Stern, Kunstverein, Gütersloh, Germany, November 20 – December 11 Identity and Relationship: Recent Paintings by David Stern, National Jewish Museum, Washington, DC, December 15 - January David Stern: Bilder, Galerie Brennecke, Berlin, Germany, October 14 – November 19 David Stern: Malerei, Galerie X Sadie Bierl, Munich, Germany 1993 David Stern: Malerei, Galerie Brennecke, Berlin, Germany, January 23 – March 6 1992-93 David Stern: Tanulmányok egy útról (Study for a Way), Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, Hungary, November 26, 1992 – January 7, 1993 David Stern: Malerei, Kunstsammlung der Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany, March 15 – April 26 1992 David Stern: Malerei, Galerie Welz, Salzburg, Austria, September 4 – September 29 David Stern: Paintings, Martin Ainscough Gallery, Liverpool, England, October 3 – November 2
ANGELICA SEMMELBAUER angelica@ellipsis-art.com
ELLIPSIS ART FOUNDER
ANGELICA SEMMELBAUER Angelica is a Private Art Advisor working with a variety of artists and consulting private clients. She is a member of the NYU Alumni Council and ArtTable, the leadership organization for professional women in the visual arts. 2005 - 2014 Director of Mimi Ferzt Gallery in New York City, which specialized in Russian Non-Conformist and Contemporary Art. Organized important curatorial exhibitions of prominent Russian artists, and successfully placed them in important private and public art collections around the world. 2004, NYU Masters Degree, Visual Arts Administration Published graduate thesis focused on building a sustainable global market for Russian Contemporary Art, tracing Russian art through its various historical movements, from Soviet era to the Russian Non-Conformist Movement, to discussion of today’s contemporary art in Russia. Catalog Design: Lisa Meta Griff, Metamorfize.com 26