Woody Gwyn: Elements of Landscape

WoodyGwyn ELEMENTS OF LANDSCAPE

WoodyGwyn ELEMENTS OF LANDSCAPE JULY 20 - AUGUST 26.

2012

LewAllenGalleries Railyard: 1613 Paseo De Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | tel 505.988.3250 Downtown: 125 West Palace Avenue | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | tel 505.988.8997 www.lewallengalleries.com | info@lewallengalleries.com cover: Ragged Point, 2010-12, egg tempera on panel, 44” x 44”

Woody Gwyn: Elements of Landscape

Like the crafting of a great poem, successful merging of the objective and subjective in visual art is often enormously difficult. For description to become more than narrative, for it to elicit emotional resonance and a lyrical quality, the work must be extraordinary. A remarkable synthesis of these diametric perspectives is achieved in the paintings of Woody Gwyn and this characteristic is one of the keys to understanding his widely-acknowledged artistic brilliance.

Sun and Sea, 2011-12, egg tempera on panel, 30” x 60”

work at LewAllen Galleries. Joining the panoramic vista paintings of the Southwest, the verdant scenes of pastoral East Coast woods, and the sweeping highways and road cuts often set next to majestic expanses of Pacific Ocean, Gwyn adds sparkling images of European city and rural settings, mystical depictions of star-studded night skies, and small-scale renderings of Pacific coastline evocative of Google Earth perspectives.

During a career spanning more than 45 years, Gwyn has combined faithful allegiance to “painting things the way they are” with a uniquely uncanny way of looking at those things. Unusual perspective conjoined with painting abilities reminiscent of the Old Masters allows Gwyn to produce landscapes that are both arresting in their verisimilitude and engaging in their allusive meditative power. At Gwyn’s easel, truth begets beauty.

Along with these innovative subjects, Gwyn also explores in his new work the use of egg tempera, that rich but difficult painting material used by the Old Masters whose painting skill Gwyn’s fully equals. Tempera is a lush unguent bound with egg yolk into which pigment is mixed by the artist. It is more associated with Renaissance painters like Duccio, Bellini and da Vinci than contemporary painters for whom the use of oils and acrylics proves to be easier to use and more versatile.

Perhaps best known for his resplendent take on the unvarnished beauty of the American landscape, Gwyn embarks on three new directions in this latest exhibition of 2

artist’s fascination with a city’s historic refinement, an aspect of landscape captured very differently from that of Gwyn’s previous imaginings in his American paintings.

Together these European subjects provide a departure from Gwyn’s more recognizable, often Western, depictions of the world around him. They afford him a new way of looking at—and correspondingly innovative way of conjuring—its details in painting.

Unlike modern paints, egg tempera requires the artist to create his or her own unique colors and demands meticulous and time-consuming layered application. But tempera’s capacity to create resplendent concentrated colors, gleaming with reflected light, is singularly captivating. This use of egg tempera in many of the works included in Elements of Landscape represents both a shift in medium and intention for Gwyn, who celebrates the paint’s reflective qualities and rich coloration. “It is simply called for,” he says, in certain of the new series. From an artist’s perspective, Gwyn allows, “it’s stimulating to switch media. You can achieve a different surface texture with egg tempera than you get with oil. Tempera retains a feeling of the outdoors—it has its own atmosphere.”

Another fascinating direction for Gwyn is a series of small-scale works whose modest dimensions contain surprisingly expansive themes. They cleverly encourage a re-visitation of our ways of looking at landscape, not unlike the perspective afforded by a Google Earth representation.

Vast cutaways of Pacific coastline portray crashing surf and dimensional land forms that become dramatic elements that somehow manage to fit on canvases of demure proportions.

Gwyn thinks carefully about the perceptual experience his paintings will initiate. For example, an exhilarating tension is created in careening curves of sun-drenched asphalt ostensibly built for speed but evincing at his hand an unexpected serenity. His use of unusual light and harmonic color arrangements result in paintings that demand deliberate, quiet contemplation.

Gwyn does not limit his use of egg tempera—a decidedly difficult medium— to small works. He is just as comfortable using it to paint larger-scale compositions, rare among modern day painters. With tempera, Gwyn achieves a rich return on his substantial investment of time and difficult effort: extraordinary visual effects from mysterious mists of vaporous fog, gleaming sparkles of reflected light, dense hues of geographic or architectural form, and meticulous detail of cobblestone, tree leaf or twinkling star.

A third grouping of recent work includes paintings of the night sky created with the same focused reverence as his other series but adding a new dimension to our understanding of Gwyn’s abilities as a landscape painter.

The inclusion of these works makes for a dynamic contrast to Gwyn’s depictions of brightly lit daytime scenes. In Orchard Milky Way, Gwyn uses an extraordinary range of intensities of hue to capture the majesty of a star-studded evening sky. Subtle variations of light range across dusky heavens in these exquisitely detailed paintings.

Like cascades of sparkling diamonds, the constellations and galaxies that feature in these arresting paintings seem almost to undulate as the eye works to grasp their awesome beauty. As though captured by photograph, the pinpoint detail of vast arrays of stars again credits the artist’s exuberant engagement with the tempera material.

Unlike a photograph, however, the result is one of nearly indescribable emotional richness that only a painter’s executant hand can achieve.

Gwyn uses this remarkable material to render many of the fascinating images that comprise new subjects included in this exhibition. Among them are captivating scenes from his recent trip to Europe. This series consists (“comprise” used above) mainly of jewel-box paintings that show off the capacity of egg tempera to render exquisite and meticulously detailed tableaus of the Spanish countryside or glittering water of the River Thames. Intimate portraits of tunneled London roadways remind of Gwyn’s fabled American road cut paintings, replacing asphalt with rainstreaked cobblestone and expanding the artist’s visual testament that even the mundane or manmade may achieve a powerful sense of beauty.

His fascination with perspective is thrillingly translated in works like Thames, in which the storied English waterway stretches into a darkened riverbank bordering dusky London avenues. Glittering city lights are reflected on the wind-rippled surface of evening waters. This quality of distinctively European refinement is also marvelously visible in works like Salamanca Place. Distinctive elements of the urban European environment are also marvelously visible in a work like Salamanca Place. In it, the viewer sees the

All the works in this new show, along with the many produced over Gwyn’s long and enormously successful career, are appealing for their astonishing clarity and

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forthright honesty in presenting sharply defined images of the world. Each work achieves a striking degree of emotional heft from the combination of fastidious detail, rigorously balanced position, nuanced brushwork, and exquisitely moderated color scheme. It makes Gwyn’s depictions of an anonymous stretch of highway or a shimmering pool of water unexpectedly diaristic and emphatically authentic.

In Gwyn’s words, the aim of “all art, whether it is abstract or realistic, is to bring us to the same state of mind: to transcendence and the essence of things.” His work delves deeply into the minutest components of place.

Each compositional element is presented with affectionate reverence, imbuing the composition with a magnetism that pulls the viewer toward a new appreciation. Pieces of gravel, whitecaps on a wave, stone blocks of an old bridge, even rust adorning a guardrail—the most mundane of the world’s details—all attain in a Gwyn painting the status of iconography of a world whose unalloyed truth is itself shown to be a (repeat from above sentence) thing of beauty.

Gwyn’s masterful use of light is part of his work’s magical effect. Every aspect of his subject is suffused in crystalline light, conferring on both the natural and the manmade an illuminating reordering of the accepted sense of aesthetic parity. The ordinary can be as lovely as the exalted when both are illuminated with such rectitude. In the stretch of highway in Ragged Point, for example, Gwyn captures tiny and often overlooked details that ratify the unwavering grace of nature while simultaneously revealing the less acknowledged but equally intense beauty of rusted guardrails and worn yellow median paint. This pictorial exploration of scenes containing both mundane and provocative elements suggests metaphorical aspects of life that naturally alternate between dynamic and staid. Such is the subtle understanding that can come from contemplation of Gwyn’s unique artistry.

Art historian Sharyn R. Udall summarized Gwyn’s engagement with the elements of the landscape he so reveres this way: “Like the earth’s surface, each mind has its own topography; Woody Gwyn’s is open, fluid, expansive, like his canvases. Disguised in the persuasive truth-telling of realism, his paintings invite us to explore realms where nature and culture test mysterious new affinities.”

-Kenneth R. Marvel

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Pacific Coast II, 2008-12, oil on panel, 44” x 44” 5

Coastal Highway, 2008-12, oil on panel, 13.5” x 9.75” 6

Pacific Coast, 2008-12, oil on panel, 11” x 14” 7

Coastal Highway I, 2008-09, oil on linen, 10” x 10” 8

The Point, 2008-09, oil on panel, 8” x 7.75” 9

Coastal Highway II, 2008-09, oil on panel, 4.75” x 9” 10

Coastal Highway III, 2008-09, oil on panel, 4.5” x 12.75” 11

Shoreline, 2008, oil on panel, 3.75” x 5.75” 12

Rocky Point, 2010, oil on linen, 52” x 96” 13

South Coast, 2008-09, oil on linen, 8” x 24” 14

Oxnard, 2008-12, oil on panel, 8” x 23.25” 15

Sun and Sea (small), 2011-12, egg tempera on panel, 16� x 20�

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Sun and Fog, 2011-12, oil on linen, 30” x 40” 17

Pacific Fog, 2008-12, oil on linen, 12” x 20” 18

Ocean III, 2006, monotype with gouache, 6.25” x 16.75” 19

Ocean II, 2008, monotype with gouache, 7.75” x 8.5” 20

Ocean I, 2006, monotype with gouache, 7.75” x 5.5” 21

Piedras Blancas I, 2005-2012, oil on canvas, 8” x 46” 22

Sea Stack, 2008-09, oil on panel, 12” x 24” 23

Fog Bank, 2012, oil on canvas, 12” x 50” 24

Ocean Tryptic, 2011-12, egg tempera on panel, 10.25” x 37.5” 25

Barracada, 2011-12, egg tempera on panel, 15.75� x 15.75�

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Barracada, 2011-12, graphite on paper, 13.75” x 15.75” 27

Pacific Road Curve, 2009, watercolor on paper, 4” x 3.25” 28

Ragged Point Drawing, 2012, graphite on paper, 8.5” x 17.5” 29

Canopy Road, 2012, monotype, 11.75” x 11.5” 30

Guadalupe Bosque, 2006, monotype, 10.25” x 5.25” 31

Guadalupe, 2012, monotype, 5” x 14” 32

New Spring Road, 2012, egg tempera on panel, 6” x 24” 33

New Spring Garden, 2012, egg tempera on panel, 12� x 12�

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Salamanca Place, 2012, egg tempera on panel, 12� x 12�

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Thames, 2012, egg tempera on panel, 8� x 10�

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España, 2012, egg tempera on panel, 12” x 12” 37

Westbound, 2012, oil on panel, 3.75” x 7.75” 38

Westbound II, 2012, oil on panel, 4.25” x 9” 39

Arroyo Galisteo, 2012, Monotype, 15.5” x 15.5” 40

Clouds, 2006, egg tempera on gessoed paper, 6.25� x 6�

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Pelon, 2012, Monotype, 11.75” x 23.5” 42

Cerro Pelon, 2010, oil on canvas, 3.25” x 11.25” 43

Cerro Pelon (plein air), 2007, egg tempera on gessoed paper, 2.25� x 12�

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Cerro Pelon (blue), 2008, egg tempera on gessoed paper, 3� x 8.5�

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Alameda, 2012, Monotype, 5.75” x 14” 46

Young Cottonwood, 2009, Watercolor and gouache on paper, 3.75” x 6” 47

Arroyo Cottonwood II, 2011, egg tempera on panel, 6” x 12” 48

Galisteo Cottonwood, 2011, egg tempera on panel, 6” x 12” 49

Arroyo Cottonwood I, 2011, egg tempera on panel, 5.5” x 9” 50

Galisteo Tree, 2008, gouache on paper, 3” x 4”

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Galisteo Aftenoon, 2010, gouache on paper, 5” x 6” 52

Los Padarjas de San Esteban, 2012, egg tempera on panel, 10� x 12�

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La Via Lactea Galisteo, 2012, mixed media on paper, 30.5” x 43” 54

La Via Lactea, 2012, egg tempera on panel, 48” x 31.75” 55

Las Estrellas, 2012, mixed media on paper, 16.5” x 20.5” 56

Galisteo Miilkyway, 2012, egg tempera on panel, 19.5” x 18” 57

Woody Gwyn Born: 1944, San Antonio, TX

Education: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2012 Elements of Landscape, LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM 2010 Expanded Views, LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM

Woody Gwyn: American Landscapes, George Washington University, Luther Brady Gallery, Washington, D.C.

Woody Gwyn, David Findlay Jr. Fine Art, New York, NY;

also Recent Work, 2006; and Woody Gwyn, 2005 2009 Recent Paintings, Modernism, San Francisco, CA; also Fog

Light and Space, 2006; Woody Gwyn, 1986; and Woody

Gwyn, 1984 Woody Gwyn, Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM; also Between Earth and Sky, 2007; Woody Gwyn: In Human Terms, 2004; Woody Gwyn, 2003; Woody Gwyn: Solitary Places, 2002; and Recent Work, 1988 2005 Woody Gwyn Revisted, Museum of the Southwest, Midland, TX 2000 Woody Gwyn, MB Modern, New York, NY 1998 Woody Gwyn: Artist of the Year, Assembly of the Arts, Midland, TX 1997 Woody Gwyn, Cline-LewAllen Gallery, Santa Fe, NM 1996 Woody Gwyn, Katharina Rich Perlow Gallery, New York, NY; also New Paintings and Monotypes, 1992; Woody Gwyn, 1991; and The Edges of the Land, 1989 Recent Works, Louis Newman Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA; also Woody Gwyn: Recent Works, 1994; and Woody Gwyn, 1993 1995 Woody Gwyn, Horwitch-LewAllen Gallery, Santa Fe, NM 1987 Woody Gwyn, Foxley-Leach Gallery, Washington, D.C. 1986 New Works by Woody Gwyn (Travelling Exhibition): Museum of the Southwest, Midland, TX McAllen International Museum, McAllen, TX The Art Center of Waco, Waco, TX The Museum at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX The Amarillo Art Center, Amarillo, TX 1983 Woody Gwyn, Davis-McClain Galleries, Houston, TX 1982 Woody Gwyn, Allan Stone Gallery, New York, NY; also 1980 1981 Woody Gwyn, Heydt/Bair Gallery, Santa Fe, NM 1978 Woody Gwyn, Elaine Horwitch Gallery, Santa Fe, NM 1977 Woody Gwyn, Meredith Long & Co., Houston, TX; also 1975-1968 1965 Woody Gwyn, Canyon Art Gallery, Canyon, TX SELECTED COLLECTIONS Albuquerque Museum of Art, Albuquerque, NM The Amarillo Museum of Art, Amarillo, TX The Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, CO Fine Arts Museum of the South, Mobile, AL Fisher Landau Center of Art, New York, NY Harvard University, Boston, MA McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX

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Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM Museum of the Southwest, Midland, TX Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY Reading Public Museums & Art Gallery, Reading, PA SELECTED GRANTS AND AWARDS 2010 New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts 1979 National Endowment of the Arts Grant

Railyard: 1613 Paseo De Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | tel 505.988.3250 Downtown: 125 West Palace Avenue | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | tel 505.988.8997 www.lewallengalleries.com | info@lewallengalleries.com