| WorkComposition with Goya, 1962
| Image Notes
(The) combination of old forms with new and of linear application with abstract became a defining and permanent characteristic of Deem's style. But while the elements of this early equation held firm, their relative weight quickly shifted: the abstracted script would remain but the sharp, realistic, referential images soon gained dominance. By making this shift -- at first tentatively and then more aggressively -- Deem pulled the subject matter of his paintings back toward figuration and created what he called "Compositions with Illustrations." As the artist himself explained ("Statement About My Work," 1993), this methodology required that the sources of his "quotations" be easily recognizable, so he chose familiar paintings by European masters such as Chardin, Millet, and Goya (Composition (Goya),1962 . (David Dearinger, "George Deem," exhibition catalogue essay,George Deem: The Art of Art History, The Boston Athenaeum, April 11 - September 1, 2012). Alternate title: Composition (Goya) 1962. Composition with Goya, the artist's original title for this painting, was restored December 15, 2015. (Ronald Vance). | Artist's Notes
Paintings: Small: Composition with Goya 30 x 32 - 1962 Allan Stone (source:artist's undated handwritten list of paintings)
Paintings held by Allan Stone Galleries / Goya, 1962 30" x 32" (source: artist's undated handwritten list). In 1960 I was painting calligraphic images of cursive script. The "writing" was not readable. My paintings were abstract images of paragraphs. In time, I began adding images of paintings: generic still lifes and landscapes and figure paintings. It was my intention that the image would be immediately recognized as an image of a painting so I chose familiar paintings for quotation: Millet's The Man with a Hoe, English and Dutch portraits, Chardin still lifes, Constable landscapes. My painting created an image of an illustration with a paragraph of associated text: "Composition with Illustration." By the mid-Sixties I was making paintings of paintings, paintings that, instead of writing, had paintings by earlier artists as their subject. I sometimes repeated the image of the same quoted painting on one canvas, sometimes juxtaposed images from two or more different quoted paintings Positioning the image of the quoted painting on a one-color ground I provided a self-defining border for the composition.(George Deem, 1993) | ExhibitionsAllan Stone Gallery, New York
Allan Stone Gallery, New York
Allan Stone Gallery, New York |
Works
| WorkComposition with Goya, 1962
| Image Notes| Artist's Notes| Exhibitions |
