Sacha
Newley XX XX
xx Citing the painter poets, Rossetti and Blake as formative influences, Sacha Newley defines his mission as “radical classicism,” to combine the qualities of classical technique to contemporary subject matter. The result has made his work a visual diary of some of the late 20th century’s most important cultural icons
What has been your journey to becoming an artist?
Biographie
Born in New York City in 1965, Sacha Newley first began to paint seriously at the age of 18. He soon rose expositions personnelles to prominence with his portrait Sir Nigel Hawthorne in Character as King George III (1993) which was chosen descriptif by ___the English National Theatre as the promotional image for its touring production of The Madness of expositions collectives George III. Newley went on to paint a second, full-length descriptif depiction of Hawthorne in character, which is now in the permanent collection of The Victoria and Albert Museum. Another honour was bestowed upon Newley in 2004 when his triple portrait of Christopher Reeve was acquired by The National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC at the Smithsonian. In 2007, Newley produced a contemporary, living portrait of America’s greatest citizen and president, Abraham Lincoln. The painting is considered the jewel in the crown of the illustrious Lincoln Heritage Museum collection in Lincoln, Illinois. Newley is currently at work on paintings for the movie Effie – starring Emma Thompson and Sir Derek Jacobi, which celebrates the relationship between two great figures of the pre-Raphaelite movement, John Everett Millais and John Ruskin. Newley is, without question, the finest and most sought-after portraitist at work today. www.sachanewley.com
Selected Solo Exhibitions 2012 July 12-29 – “All or Nothing”, The Temp Gallery, Sacramento, USA 2010 – 1-man retrospective: “PRISM The Many Facets of Sacha Newley”, LA ARTHOUSE, Los Angeles,USA 2010 – 1-man retrospective: “FACE VALUE The Portraits of Sacha Newley”, Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles, USA 2008 – “Blessed Curse”, Catto Gallery, The Arts Club, London, UK 2006 – “Portraits”, Wally Findlay Galleries, Palm Beach, USA 2001 – “From the Hamptons to Harlem” new work by Sacha Newley, Catto Gallery, London, UK 2000 – Sacha Newley “Saint George and The Dragon”, Grey McGear Modern Gallery, Bergamot Station, Los Angeles, USA
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Several factors have combined together with timing, but my interest in art first manifested itself at an early age. I attended King Alfred’s School in the UK which emphasized and encouraged creativity in children and when I was six to eight years old I had a great time immersing myself in making papier mâché and sensing the joy of making art. I then forgot about it until I was in my teens when I began to draw a lot and I focused on self-portraits. My art essentially began as doodles and I was always fascinated by the faces of old men and the sense of light and shadow in their faces. Doing a History of Art ‘A’ level was a further stepping stone as my teacher encouraged intensive practical sessions and I realized I had a natural grasp of what painters were thinking of their subject matter. When I was 18 I gave up painting, though, in favor of writing a long, autobiographical poem. It was during a moment of intense writer’s block that I found my way back to painting. I bought some paints and started drawing again. It was an ‘Open Sesame’ moment from which I have never looked back.
You quickly became known for your portraits. Yes, my first portrait was of Madeleine Curtis and I did it in a highly photorealist style – painstakingly painting every follicle of her hair. It took me five months to complete and from there other commissions arose. I was thrilled to be a jobbing portraitist at the age of 20.
Lyme Regis was where you were based at that time? Yes. I lived in a virtual ivory tower overlooking the sea, and it felt at times as if I was floating in the sky; my apartment was quite high up. I was a virtual recluse at this time, living in squalor, and my studio allowed me to get lost as an artist. I made a lot of bad art at this time, but I firmly believe that creative failures are important as they allow you to find your way. It’s for this reason that I am so interested in shadows and why I’ve always been fascinated by the works of Edward Munch, Schiele and the German expressionists. We are all naturally drawn to disaster and seduced by the monstrous. When I was in Lyme Regis I confronted many of my own demons and it’s why in later life I was so drawn to other men who had faced them too.
Your body of work is certainly impressive – you have been privileged to paint many legendary “men of genius”. I seem to gravitate towards men who feel wronged by society or have been shaking their fist at the establishment. One of my first portraits was of Billy Wilder which was extraordinary. I had taken a break from painting in my early 20s as I wanted to become a director and in fact attended film school. Of course, I had to move to Los Angeles and whilst I still kept a small studio there, I also began writing scripts. With no income coming in, I decided to get back to painting and called my mother, Joan Collins, to get Billy Wilder’s number. I was surprised when he answered the phone himself and even more surprised when I turned up to meet this great director. He was very stooped, and showed me into a dark room with a high window behind a desk. There was no light on the canvas: it was all on him, which made the initial portrait difficult. I met him three times and worked in silence for most of it. As they say, the truly great ones are always the most humble and I was impressed by his quietude. When I took back the finished painting I was met with total silence. His wife later called me to say he loved the painting; he just didn’t like himself very much!
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Christopher Reeve, 2004, oil on linen, 44 x 68”, permanent collection National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian
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Dominick Dunne, 1996, oil on linen, 24 x 36”
Billy Wilder, 1998, oil on canvas, 20 x 26”
Gore Vidal, Oliver Stone and Dominick Dunne were all next. What were they like to paint? Oliver Stone was very uncomfortable, which is ironic given his métier as a director – he didn’t like to be scrutinized and it took a while for him to get used to the process. In the end I did three paintings for him – one of which he gave to his mother and he kept the other two. He was also quite vain! When I met Dominick Dunne, who was a good friend of my mother and father’s, he had just finished covering the OJ Simpson trial for Vanity Fair and was incredibly busy. Everyone wanted to meet or interview him and because of his forthright belief in OJ’s guilt, he suffered a backlash of public opinion and even received death threats. When I met him he was staying in Chateau Marmont and lived in one of their corner suites. The only space we had was in the kitchenette area with a table set upon linoleum. He hardly had time to look up as he was writing up his notes and I realized that that was the painting. The intensity of his feelings and commitment to his job was very apparent. He bought the finished painting immediately I had completed it.
Your portrait of Christopher Reeve is also emotionally charged, isn’t it? I only had an afternoon to meet Christopher as he had been extremely ill and was recovering from an infection. Little did I know he would be dead in less than six weeks after our meeting. I went up to meet him in Bedford, New York and was met by his wife Dana. He came towards me in his wheelchair and was dressed head to toe in black which made a profound impression upon me. I turned and photographed him from every direction and during that time his wicked sense of humour was apparent. In the end, I realized that the painting came to be all about the wheelchair, and how this ‘superman’ was reduced but not overpowered by it. I did a series of three paintings and one of them is now in the Smithsonian Institute in their 20th century gallery, of which I am very proud.
In many ways you have been a visual diarist of some of Hollywood’s greatest stars? I didn’t plan that consciously but you’re right and by coincidence I had my first exhibition in the iconic, storied hotel Chateau Marmont (where John Belushi died and which has been the scene of many of Hollywood’s famed parties). I’ll never forget that opening night.
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Gore Vidal, 1994, oil on canvas, 36 x 54”, permanent collection National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian
My mother had organized for her Public Relations Manager, Jeffrey Lane, to publicize the event and in the end 500 people came – amongst them Sharon Stone and many of the press and film crowd. However, it was a real anticlimax afterwards and I realized there and then that LA is not a town for paintings. I turned my back on portraiture for a while and went into abstract art which had much to do with me acquiring a huge, white cube of a studio in Venice, California.
What did you learn from abstract art? I found it very liberating. Having to rely on form and color to express yourself is a challenge, but I learned so much about texture, paint, different mediums and I loved it. I felt very inspired. It was after this that I painted my father, Anthony Newley, as Scrooge. It turned out to be a monumental work and was the gateway to further figurative work.
How supportive have your parents been of your creative career? They were both enormously supportive and never got in the way – even when I wanted to go off the radar for indefinite periods. I have to admit that my mother hooked me up with many of her friends (amongst them Sir Nigel Hawthorne) and this was my entrée into Hollywood. I guess I took that advantage a little for granted, but since then I have made my own way.
Who are your heroes in terms of other portrait artists? Chronologically I love Holbein, Memling, the early Renaissance artists and Rembrandt’s self-portraits. Velasquez, Van Dyck, Munch, Beckman, Schiele and the Expressionists as I have said all played a significant part in my formative experience. However, John Singer Sargent’s facility with portraits makes him in my opinion the greatest brush man and is in a league of his own and I’ve recently returned from Florence where I was fortunate to take in an exhibition dedicated to him.
Your style has developed from the early portraits though? In my early work, I relied heavily on photographs and it was only later that I started to work from life. I realized that I was translating from one language into another, by turning a photograph into an artwork. The act of painting in itself is revelatory; and I am conscious in my portrait paintings that they are three dimensional.
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Scrooge 1, 1999, pastel on paper, 16 x 20”
Anthony Newley as Ebenezer Scrooge, 1998, pastel on paper, 14 x 20”
What medium do you like best? I love experimenting and have worked in pastels, acrylic, oils and with paint sticks. I’m not really into etching but I do love to experiment – I’ve tried painting with a hairdryer, using it to blow around watery pigment on paper. While the diversity of mediums seems scattered, I think in the long term this experimentation will make sense. I often see this in other artist’s retrospectives.
What are you currently working on? Well I’ve just finished my first book – called Unaccompanied Minor and it’s been a huge project which has taken me almost three years to complete. It’s autobiographical and features some of my paintings also. I feel that I’ve turned full circle in a way. I became a painter because I had writer’s block and now my writing desk is as important as my easel; that’s why I have always held the ‘painter poets’ Rossetti and Blake in high esteem.
Penny McCormick
Oliver Stone, 1998, oil on canvas, 24 x 24
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