Joseph Drapell 1940
JOSEPH DRAPELL is a founding member of the New Painters. He is recognized for his particular form of Colour Field painting, which emphasizes surface dimensionality. His unique impasto technique involves spreading paint with a large notched device and applying many layers of under-painting and glazes. Through his varied and vigorous methods of paint handling, he forms intensely tactile, undulating surfaces, which pulse with colour and movement. Drapell’s most recent work plays with the distribution of weight and surface ridging in the impasto, which creates simple lines and forms often suggesting figurative elements. These paint forms are further brightened and intensified with the introduction of light-refractive media, which crosses over the two systems of colour-mixing, bridging pigment with light. Drapell’s works have been exhibited widely and placed in international public venues and collections including the Solomon Guggenheim Museum in New York, the British Museum in London, the Museum of Modern Art in Vienna, the National Gallery in Prague and the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Cosmic Generation, 2012 mixed-media on canvas 48” x 60”
Running Silver, 2012 acrylic on canvas 96” x 60”
Cosmic Child mixed-media on canvas 60” x 60”
Poetry mixed-media on canvas 48” x 36”
Grey Eminence, 1978 acrylic on canvas 84” x 49”
Late Call , 1981 acrylic on canvas 55” x 53”
Prisoners of Formalism, 2000 acrylic on canvas 24” x 60”
Dandylion Sun, 2005 acrylic on canvas 60” x 48”