Homage To A Living Legacy
By Tom Wachunas
"…always present the spectator with a
transfigured view of visible reality." –Jan Van Eyck
EXHIBIT: The Great Masters As Teachers – oil
paintings in the Flemish technique by Frank Dale and his students, in the Wilkof Courtyard of the Canton Museum of Art. Opening tonight,
Sept. 5 and on view through tomorrow, Sept. 6. THE SHOW WILL BE RE-INSTALLED ON
SEPTEMBER 16 and REMAIN ON VIEW THROUGH
SEPTEBER 21.
In one way you may
call this entry ‘confessions of a flummoxed judge.’ When artist and teacher
Frank Dale asked me a few months ago to judge this exhibit of 50 works by 23 of
his students (from 10 to 81 years old), I was flattered, gratified and eager to
oblige. Little did I appreciate then what a thorny gauntlet he had thrown down.
The endeavor became the most daunting assessment task I’ve ever undertaken.
At one point
during my second extended look at the show, I was exasperated and otherwise
reduced to being a victim of analysis paralysis. I couldn’t decide on an order of first, second
and third place. Determining the Honorable Mentions proved equally elusive –
the show is, on the whole, simply that superb.
All of the participants here should
be rightfully proud of their achievements. A vast majority of the works
demonstrate both an astonishing level of technical excellence and breathtaking
beauty.
Frank Dale’s field
of award-winning expertise is in the ‘Old Masters’ Flemish method. The
technique of layering translucent oil color glazes imbues the painted subjects
with extraordinary luminosity and vitality. All of the paintings here are
modeled after works by historic masters spanning roughly five centuries.
Copying the masters
in this context necessitated working from photos. Photographs of paintings can
vary widely in terms of their overall clarity, and aren’t always dependably
accurate records of the original works. So I think it fair to say that in a
number of cases here, the artists needed to exercise some interpretive freedom
in approximating certain nuances of detailing and color. But keep in mind that
I think the goal for the artists isn’t so much perfect replication as it is to
embrace the overarching vision of the chosen master and in turn learn more of how that vision was accomplished. In other words, what are the
skills and mechanics needed to deliver the essence of a subject (especially in
portraiture)?
Ultimately my
difficult choices for awards (all pictured above, with the exception of an
Honorable Mention for Kris Wyler’s The
Girl with the Red Hat from the original
by Jan Vermeer) were delicate matters of balancing head with heart. It’s a
process that can’t be translated into a rigid, pedagogical formula. The works I
chose, and for that matter many others here to varying degrees, transcend the
demands of physical rendering to present not just pristine surfaces, but ‘places’
or even ‘events’ where poetry meets practicality, where the spiritual and
cerebral resonate in harmony. These highly gifted artists have effectively
captured the uncanny sense of palpable life – the exquisite anima – of the original works that
inspired them.
I commend Frank
Dale and his student artists for their courage in carrying forward an aspect of
art that I think is often all too lacking in contemporary painting. Call it the
enchanting aura of unabashed nobility.
PHOTOS, from top: Child At Bath, by Kathy Israel, First Place,
from the original by William Bouguereau; Madonna
of the Lillies, by Dan Wilkey, Second Place, from the original by William
Bouguereau; La Donna Velata, by
Nicole Hill, Third Place, from the original by Raphael; The Book of Fables, by Sujata Mukerji, Honorable Mention, from the
original by William Bouguereau; Girl With
A Pearl Earring, by Frank Dale, “Teacher’s Best” certificate, from the
original by Jan Vermeer
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