John Lees
Dates: March 6 – April 5, 2008
Opening Reception: Thursday, March 6, 2008, 6 – 8 pm
New York, Tuesday, January 31, 2008, Betty Cuningham Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings and drawings by John Lees at 541 West 25th Street, New York City from on March 6 through April 5, 2008. The exhibition includes 24 oil on canvas paintings, and 15 ink and gouache drawings, some in the making since 1972. The paintings range in size from 5 x 7 inches to
40 x 48 inches. A full color catalogue with an essay by writer and critic William Corbett accompanies the exhibition. The artist will be present for an opening reception on Thursday, March 6th, from 6-8 pm.
Lees works and reworks his drawings and paintings over many years, building up the surfaces and breaking them down, developing what he calls a “sense of presence”. He keeps a dated log on each piece (on the front or back) often spanning several years. The drawings in their inks and dry gouaches resemble ancient documents. Covered with notations, these drawings document Lee’s artistic journey. His paintings record a similar process: each layer of pigment is slowly built up over time, the sinopia peeking through the encrusted surfaces.
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In 1906 the critic Philip Hale remarked that he perceived a “fine insanity” in the work of Marsden Hartley, by which the artist took him to mean “a strong insistence upon the personal interpretations of the subjects chosen.” While Marsden might not be the first name to come to mind in viewing John Lees’ fourth solo exhibition at Betty Cuningham, Lees does harness his unequivocal mastery of paint into building images that speak of a similar, profound commitment to inner reflection.
John Lees’s hallmark obsession with his interior life is legendary. The twenty-seven works on view at Betty Cuningham Gallery are concrete examples of his introspective style; they are ponderous, blisteringly intense, and hyperspecific. While his obsessiveness may fuel a rich interior life, it has clearly come at a cost. He seems to have little time or energy left over to pursue that elusive possession of the comfortably successful artist: recognition.
In early November, clocks around here seem to slow down as fallen aspen leaves are plastered to the concrete and light snowfall hints at the winter to come. The empty streets do not profess a dearth of cultural offerings, though.
The Ah Haa School for the Arts has several offerings during the next month: most notably, the Telluride Painting School’s The Central Image Still Life, taught by acclaimed artist and professor John Lees over the course of two weeks, from Nov. 9-20.
