Kyle Polzin: Curated Spaces
Kyle Polzin’s long-awaited new solo show presents the artist as a curator of Western artifacts and objects.
Still life artists have best stuff.
Wildlife painters can’t take the bison or mountain lions home with them. The same with the cowboy and landscape artists. But still life is different. The objects are tangible. They can be held in your hands, examined closely and set on a shelf. And for still life artists, these objects tend to accumulate in great numbers around their houses and studios, coloring the artists’ lives with artifacts that give a sense of time and place.
For Kyle Polzin the objects have a powerful presence in his life and art because objects tell stories. They transport people to a place they’ve seen, visited or imagined. The smell of old leather, the cold touch of a rifle barrel, the creak of an old cavalry saddle—objects invoke all the senses, and they have a way of unlocking memories and bringing those memories alive.
“Still lifes are quiet and meditative, which is why I paint as close to life-size as I can get. I want the objects to feel real, so the viewer can connect with them better. I don’t consider my work Trompe l’oeil because I’m not trying to fool the eye—i’m trying to take viewers into this romantic time and place,” Polzin says from his studio near Austin, Texas. “Once you’re drawn into a still life painting there is a peacefulness there. In a way it’s like a portrait, that feeling you get when you’re in front of a portrait and you look right into the eyes of the subject. It feels personal, but also not threatening. That’s the way I am with these objects. There is a quietness there that I get lost in.”
Polzin certainly knows quietness. He’s been holed up in his studio for more than a year as he works to churn out the largest collection of work he’s ever showed at one time. The 18 works will appear in Grace and Grit — An American Narrative November 16 at the Legacy Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona. He’s had to skip some opportunities, including the Prix de West, and he’s certainly had to stress a little as a deadline has loomed over his head, but Polzin says he’s in a good place. His studio is in his home, which means he gets to see his two daughters and his wife, Leigh, throughout the day. And the work is
stronger than ever, with more ideas than there’s time to paint them. “The thing I like about a big show like this is I can explore some ideas that I wouldn’t normally be able to get away with. When you’re in a museum exhibition or another kind of show, people want to see certain things and you only have so many works to show,” he says. “But [Legacy owners] Brad and Jinger Richardson have let me stretch myself and so some things that are out of the ordinary.”
You can see Polzin feeling around the edges of the West in works like Pap’s Stash, featuring vintage bourbon and whisky bottles, or in California Reds, which presents an arrangement of wine bottles, each with a different label. He’s also working on a baseball piece filled with objects related to America’s pastime. In Compana de Misión, he paints a bell from a Spanish mission. The painting is a departure for the Texas painter because the bell is not painted in his more moody studio setting but within the niche of the mission—the white stone is lit by the sun and almost glows, creating satisfying contrasts in the shadows. Polzin is famously meticulous about his objects, and the bell was no different. He looked for one he could purchase, but they were thousands of dollars online, so he made one from an upside-down ceramic flower pot that had the same shape as some of the historic bells he was using as a reference. “Just making it from scratch is always an option with my work,” he says. “For this one, after I made the bell, I created a box for it to hang in. I framed it out and stuccoed it, everything I could to make it real for the painting. When the objects are real the paintings tend to come to life better.”
In addition to several floral still life works, Polzin’s new show will primarily feature iconic objects of the West such as cowboy artifacts, a rifle on a bundle wrapped with a Hudson’s Bay blanket, and several works showing Native American objects, including Guardian of the Grasslands, featuring one of his famous headdresses, and Keepsake, which shows a little beaded and quilled pouch that hangs from a nail on a wall. Defender of the Territory and Manifest Destiny, both saddles with various accoutrements, will be shown next to each other, as if two sides of the same coin. In Quick Draw he paints a pearlhandled revolver in a leather holster. The gun sits on a table with an empty bottle and several loose bullets. Nailed to the wall behind everything is a drawing of a man testing his quick draw on a fence post. Look close and you’ll see the figure is Polzin himself in the drawing. “I didn’t want to paint another artist’s work in the painting, so I went out in the yard and took some reference photos of myself,” he says. “Anything to help tell the story.”
What’s wonderful about the genre of still life, and Polzin’s work specifically, is how the artist is not just a painter, but also a curator. Before paint can even be applied, objects have to be found, purchased, made from scratch and brought together. Even once everything is gathered there is still an arrangement that must be made to tell the desired story. And each assemblage of objects tells its own unique story. Take, for instance, Quick Draw.
Add a sheriff’s badge and the work tells a story about law enforcement, the taming of the West or the dangers of public service in a dangerous time. But then remove the sheriff’s badge and add a wanted poster. It tells an entirely different tale, about the lawlessness and violence of the West, the abundance of crime and the looming threat of punishment. “The paintings aren’t about one object, but all of them. Only together do they begin to tell the story I want to tell,” Polzin says. “It’s important the objects have balance, feel natural and don’t clutter the scenes. All of the objects have to pull you in. I want people to stay and look because the arrangement is pleasing and comfortable. The composition is key to holding your attention.”
While curating the objects is certainly important, make no mistake, Polzin is an artist first. It shows in his works, which reverberate with magnificent detail and that beautiful dusty light he paints into his scenes. The artist calls it a “rustic patina,” and it gives his objects an almost uncanny presence within the canvas—you want to reach into the paint and touch the materials. Polzin achieves the detail by working in tight, controlled layers, which allows him to create texture, what he says is the defining characteristic of his work. “What I’m trying to achieve is capturing the different textures of cloth, leather, metal…wood, for instance, if you were looking at it from an angle you’d be able to see down into the cracks of the surface. It has depth and texture. It’s not a Formica tabletop that looks flat. I want those qualities in my paintings,” he says. “So when I work I have to apply the paint so the light penetrates down where I want it to, so there’s a richness and detail to every surface. The glazes allow a certain amount of transparency to the layers, which allow me to push some of those textures.”
It’s this excruciating attention to detail and his curated compositions that has sent Polzin into the upper echelon of Western art. At auctions his pieces almost always sell at or above high estimates. He sells out in gallery shows. At museum exhibitions the by-draw bid boxes are packed so full that they look more like piñatas waiting to burst open. And he’s largely been off the market while he has prepared for Grace and Grit.
“This will be the largest body of work Kyle has ever had in one spot. We’ve had one-man shows with eight to 12 paintings, but in this one he’ll have 18—it’s going to be huge for Kyle. He’s been working on it for more than a year and we’re very happy with the variety of work he’ll be presenting,” says Brad Richardson, who adds that the works in the show will be offered in a fixed-price, by-draw sale, along with several pieces that will be sold in a live auction. “It’s just incredible what he can do in a painting. And I’m always surprised to find out the lengths he goes to make objects for his works. One time he couldn’t find the right guidon for a cavalry painting he was doing. The next thing I hear is he’s buying silk so he can make the guildon himself. It’s that attention to detail that makes his work so special.”
For Polzin, the extra work is worth it if it gives the objects life. If someone can look at something from one of his paintings—a birchbark canoe, scrimshaw, leather holster, a mission-style bell—and feel connected to it, then the hard work was all worth it.
“The objects have to feel alive,” Polzin says. “They have to feel authentic.”