Claudine Anrather Dreaming Electric Sheep 2006 oil on linen 72" x 96' [installation view, very large detail]
Claudine Anrather Flower 2006 18" x 20" [installation view]
31 Grand is showing some gorgeous paintings by Claudine Anrather through December 3 in an exhibition titled, "Beyond the Pale". The artist's medium-distance landscapes are painted in oil on both large and small canvases.
The colorful flora and fauna which adorn them are described by the gallery as the Austrian artist's tribute to the beloved mountains of her heritage, although her wonderful yet somewhat optimistic, rose or parti-colored lens doesn't quite obscure the tension and messiness which is a part of any real forest, and even more likely in a forest of the imagination. Here the mix is both intoxicating and a bit distrubing.
One very large canvas, not actually part of the show, was hung on the back wall of the office area. The work has not even been titled yet, but for reasons which include one magnificent dragonfly and the exceptional appearance of a solitary human face, I've decided to include it here.
Claudine Anrather [title unknown at this time] 2006 oil on linen 60" x 90" [detail of installation]
[very large detail of above]
Hi James, I'm so glad you wrote about this show. I love it. these paintings are sloppy, lush, sexy, queer, and haunting. They're complicated. For a while they looked playful then they looked haunting, then sexy. I think I like art history too much because I always end up referencing something from another century but I can't help myself...they remind me of the photographer Julia Margaret Cameron for their dreaminess and oblique sexuality. Cameron made these Orientalistic photographs back in the mid-1800's and they're dreamy and strange like these paintings. There is one painting in the show that has a woman's face in it (a different one from the one you refer to) that is very much an Odalise (don't get me wrong, it's not an homage to Manet or Ingres) I just mean that it is a woman who allows you to watch her, but not all of her. That's how all of the paintings are here they allow you to glimse through the trees or paint strokes to see some secret private event. And the paint handling is beautiful. Oh la la. I like the dragon fly but my fav detail is a bunny in the "Dreaming Electric Sheep" painting. It's scary in a Beatrice Potter way.