REAL REPRESENTATIONS
2019 Figurations exhibition
Figuration is more than the human form; it includes representations of any real object. Nüart Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, presents its annual Figurations Group Exhibition 2019 August 9 through 25 with works by Michael Bergt, Matthias Brandes, Erin Cone and John Tarahteeff.
Brandes paints buildings seemingly without weight that recall the work of Balthus and Magritte but represent Brandes’ own kind of magic. He writes, “I’m interested in the contradictions: my houses seem to be made of a hard material, stony, heavy. Instead they can also levitate, fly or go like birds in the nest. The painting is a parallel world that leaves freedom
to thoughts and imagination. What today is stopped, yesterday perhaps was moving or flying, or will do so tomorrow. Every state of affairs is temporary and precarious.”
Tarahteeff allows his paintings’ narratives to emerge from his gut and his subconscious as the paintings develop. He says, “The prospect of suggesting a story through imagery is less important to me than the sheer act of playing with the formal elements of a picture (shape, color, texture, etc.)…Narrative elements develop. They surface in a subconscious way. As I’m looking for a formal resolution something will pop into my head that will solve it formally but also a lot of other things
can emerge.” In Chutes and Ladders a girl balances in midair at the edge of a cliff while her friend pedals his bike up a hill having already navigated the treacherous path—abandoning her to her fate of which she is oblivious?
Cone parallels Tarahteeff, stating, “I emphasize visual impact over narrative context, focusing on the subtle orchestration of my subject within a framework of design.” Known for her anonymous full-length female figures that straddle the line between representation and abstraction, she is represented in the exhibition by head-and-shoulder portraits of women representing the seasons. The figure in Summer gazes directly at the viewer aware of both who she is and what she represents.
Bergt’s History Lesson re-presents Picasso’s graphic Guernica as the background for multiple references to art history. “The two central female figures turn towards the two reaching female figures in Picasso’s painting,” Bergt explains. “They are rendered representationally, as if reality is looking back at a powerful internal, emotional expression. The most forward figure is posed as a nod toward Manet’s Déjeuner sur l’herbe.” He continues, “We live in a time where visual imagery confronts us everywhere. To have set references, such as those in this painting, enables us to construct and deconstruct what we feel and understand about what we see and how we think.”