Tom Palmore
BIG CATS AND BIRDS
Tom Palmore BIG CATS AND BIRDS August 1-24.2014
Railyard Arts District | 1613 Paseo de Peralta | tel 505.988.3250 | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | www.lewallengalleries.com cover: Don’t be Fooled by the Cuteness, acrylic and oil on canvas, 30” x 40”
Tom Palmore
BIG CATS AND BIRDS
For nearly 40 years, Tom Palmore has been painting animals as the subjects of portraits with characteristic wit, sophistication, refined attention to detail, and stunning technical prowess. His ultra-real portrayals of animals in oil and acrylic offer a unique and often comical juxtaposition of technical literalism and surreal, imaginative context to create a sort of visual pun. In his new exhibition at LewAllen Galleries, Big Cats and Birds, Palmore once again challenges conventions of photography and painting, especially in wildlife and portrait genres, to question artistic tradition, comment on both the human condition and nature, and compose an art form that is beyond categorization.
interpretations, that these remarkable creatures should be regarded as partners alongside their human counterparts. As he explains, noting the whimsical component and simultaneous significance of the portraits, “Absurdity is wonderful, but I don’t want to humanize or disrespect an animal. I think it is silly to depict them doing human activities like smoking a pipe or playing poker, or dressing them in human clothing. For me such depictions are demeaning. From the first time I put an animal in an unanticipated setting, I realized that it made the viewer look more closely at both the animal and the environment.” His paintings blend aspects of the natural and human realms, where the animal is eloquently elevated to assume the role of the main character in his own enigmatic narrative. The striking technique employed to render these creatures adds to their intriguing energy.
Palmore intelligently toys with refined and amusing incongruity to create meaning, sentiment, and the sense of vitality for which he is known. As Susan Hallsten McGarry, the author of Earthlings, the book that chronicles Palmore’s career, explains, Palmore’s artwork “treads a thin line...between respecting animals and humanizing them,” by placing beautiful creatures, including even the wildest animals, in gracefully fantastic postures and contexts, where they can be admired and considered in relation to humankind. The images appear fanciful and humorous in some ways; however, through his combined use of realism and imagined and manmade spaces, these captivating scenes are given a quiet human presence and the animals are bequeathed with an uncanny sense of personality. They become sophisticated and subtle satire of the human condition and humanity’s relationship with the natural world.
Capturing the dewy sheen of a jungle cat’s moist nose or the thousands of tiny, individual down feathers that insulate a barn owl, Palmore’s facility with paint and singular attention to detail is brilliantly evidenced in the life like textures he achieves two-dimensionally. Palmore has a meticulous and almost obsessive devotion to this exhaustive intricacy—one that portrays the animals with shocking precision and care, a process which he admits leaves him before the canvas painting individual feathers and cat hair for long periods. The product, however, is realistically rich consistencies—coats so elaborate they appear as though they could actually be touched.
Born in a small town in Oklahoma and raised with a myriad of pets, including horses, squirrels, and even an alligator, Tom Palmore developed an early love for animals, an interest which he maintained. His grandparents and mother encouraged his exploration of art in his youth, and he later attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Through his program, he gained a deep appreciation for Classical European portraiture, as well as the Surrealist techniques honed by artists like Roberto Matta and René Magritte. Inspired by studies of these great artists, the young Palmore began to incorporate realistic objects in figurative, abstract, and surrealistic early works. He often found himself drawn to animals, forming the foundation for what would become the unique course he has forged within the art world. Today, Palmore is famous for his animal portraiture. The exotic felines and birds that grace this new collection are painted with great reverence and an inherent sense of mystery, and the animals depicted almost appear to have commissioned the portraits themselves. Palmore’s keen eye for human idiosyncrasy, coupled with a genuine admiration for the character of animals, converges in art that glows with personality. Defined by a sense of nobility, dignity, and eloquence, Palmore reminds his audience, through these
Flying Kangaroo Mouse, 2014, acrylic and oil on board, 18” x 24”
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As striking as his literalism and mastery of realist detail are, it is not only Palmore’s technical aptitude, but also his unique sense of humor, in unexpected settings, that sets his work apart and makes the viewer contemplate the animal and its environment more closely. The artist often plays with irony or includes background themes or motifs that appear oddly fitting, though not typical for those species. As he explains of these settings, “I realized early on that the background is a critical part of the painting and that it can be the element which creates wit or surprise. I’ve also learned that the background possibilities are infinite because they are only limited by my imagination.” It is in these unconventional and non-traditional contexts that he generates allegory and layered meaning, whether the animal is poised before a sensuous and colorful textile or a wildly fanciful landscape. In “China White,” for example, a regal white tiger has been removed from a more conventional lush jungle setting and is posed before a stone wall, decorated with dragon carvings. This environment and the power and emotion in the tiger’s expression enhance the sense of mystique and noble personality that shrouds the animal. As is distinctive in Palmore’s artwork, the combinations of human and animal compositional elements appear almost natural at first, but the impact of their quiet discordance quickly follows. These contrasts produce an amused meditation within the viewer, and though Palmore’s technique remains representational, from a conceptual standpoint, his works depict a phantasmagoric understanding of natural life, being an eloquent and witty exploration of the fundamental harmonies between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom. Beyond classification, Palmore’s artwork serves as a reminder of the reverence and appreciation due all living things, a unique representation of the union of human and nature. His style gives his subjects both dignity and formality—a style that distinguishes the artist. As Palmore explains, “Even when I put an animal in a natural setting, I try to make it my own through unusual lighting, unique compositions, or atypical points of view. The worst thing, in my opinion, is when an artist copies someone else. There are a handful of original wildlife artists and the rest are members of the ‘elk in the meadow’ or ‘moose in the water’ schools. We are all influenced by society and by history, but you have to take those examples, put them through your own filter and make them your own.”
Snowy Barn Owl, 2014, acrylic and oil on canvas, 48” x 36”
Born in 1945 in Ada, Oklahoma, Palmore’s education in art occurred at several institutions, concluding at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia in 1969. His work appears in numerous corporate collections and in such prominent public collections as the Smithsonian Institution, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Denver Museum of Art, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the National Museum of Wildlife Art, the Saint Louis Museum of Art and the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
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King of Dogtown, 2014, acrylic and oil on board, 20” x 24”
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Arizona Jaguar, 2014, acrylic and oil on canvas, 36” x 48”
Isabella, 2014, acrylic and oil on canvas, 36” x 36”
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China White, 2014, acrylic and oil on canvas, 36” x 48”
Catnip, 2014, acrylic and oil on canvas, 20” x 24”
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Big Kitty, 2014, acrylic and oil on canvas, 36” x 42”
TOM PALMORE Tom Palmore
Smithsonian Institution St. Louis Art Museum Twenty Mule Team Museum Whitney Museum of American Art
Born: 1945, Ada, Oklahoma Education: 1967-69 Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts 1965-66 North Texas State University, Denton, TX 1963-65 University of Nevada, Reno, NV Selected Solo Exhibitions: 2012 LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM 2010 LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM 2008 LewAllen Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM 2006 LewAllen Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM 2003 LewAllen Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM 2002 Newman and Saunders Gallery, Philadelphia, PA 1999 US Artist 99, Philadelphia, PA J. Cacciola Galleries, New York, NY 1998 J. Cacciola Galleries, New York, NY 1995 Roland Betts Gallery, Santa Fe, NM 1994 J. Cacciola Galleries, New York, NY 1993 Elaine Horwitch Gallery, Santa Fe, NM 1992 Elaine Horwitch Gallery, Santa Fe, NM 1991 Sherry Frumkin Gallery, Santa Fe, NM 1989 Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM 1986 Gerald Peters Gallery, Dallas, TX 1985 Route 66, Philadelphia, PA 1983 Texas Wildlife, F.C.I., Fort Worth, TX 1981 Elaine Horwitch Galleries, Santa Fe, NM 1979 Elaine Horwitch Galleries, Santa Fe, NM 1977 Janet Fleischer, Philadelphia, PA 1976 Marion Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, PA 1975 Louis K. Miesel Gallery, New York, NY 1973 Bernard Dannenberg Galleries, Philadelphia, PA 1971 Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, PA COLLECTIONS: Albuquerque Museum of Art, History, and Science Allentown Museum of Art Atlantic Richfield Center for Visual Arts Brooklyn Museum Denver Art Museum Everson Museum of Art Indianapolis Museum of Art Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe National Museum of Wildlife Art New Orleans Museum of Art Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art Philadelphia Museum of Art
Tanager, 2014, oil and acrylic on monoprint, 36” x 24”
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Railyard Arts District | 1613 Paseo de Peralta | tel 505.988.3250 Santa Fe, New Mexio 87501 | www.lewallengalleries.com | info@lewallengalleries.com