Colin Brant
The Garden of the World (And Getting There)
Adam Baumgold Gallery, New York
October 18 — November 24, 2001
Adam Baumgold Gallery presents the first New York solo exhibition by Colin Brant of paintings "The Garden of the World (And Getting There)." These idiosyncratic oil paintings, relating to the discovery, exploration, and settlement of the American landscape, show a vision of a world that seems impractically optimistic and idealistic.
In his catalog essay for the exhibition, Charles Taliaferro (1) writes: "Colin Brant's work is informed by the idealized landscapes of early American folk painting. He captures the simple, vernacular coherence and eccentricities of the tradition, especially with his use of perspective, the scenes within scenes, and the shifts in depth of field. There is a stillness to these paintings which invites reverie, an unhurried exploration of forests, fields, lakes, grottos, and mountains. As viewers, we share in the adventures of travelers as they journey and rest through these pastoral constructions. At the same time there are surprising interruptions in which these worlds are called into question. We are allowed to enjoy these Arcadian scenes but we are also cautioned against being over earnest. In "Edge of the Dark Forest," for example, humor prevails as deer potter about and a squirrel clings desperately to a tree - all under the watchful eye of a contented owl. The paintings raise questions gently; I do not see the work in terms of pure satire. The irony in Brant's work, if there is any, is romantic. It is at once dissembling and heartening, gently checking out enthusiasm for the genuine charm and enchantment of the worlds he brings to us."
"The American folk tradition produced work which was explicitly personal, highly interpretive, and sometimes driven by profound values. Brant does not advance an explicit moral text like the American primitive artist Edward Hicks who framed paintings with edifying verse. Even so, there is a tenderness and humanity in Brant's romantic irony which I read as non-utopian and in favor of personality. Walt Whitman wrote that 'the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery.' The same might be said of one of Colin Brant's paintings."
Colin Brant lives and works in New York City. He is the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts grant, and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award in painting.
(1) Charles Taliaferro teaches aesthetics at St. Olaf College; his writing has been published in the British Journal of Aesthetics and elsewhere.
ADAM BAUMGOLD GALLERY
74 East 79th Street, New York, NY 10021
www.adambaumgoldgallery.com
