figure drawings exhibition
Artist Carol Heft will be showing her recent figure drawings at The Blue Mountain Gallery from September 5 – 18, 2017. “The transformation of marks, interesting in themselves, into a wide range of gestures and implied narratives make these drawings unique, and rarely exhibited aspect of Carol’s work. The cumulative effect of seeing them in the gallery creates a moving and powerful realization of the struggles and dignity of the human condition as seen through the eyes of the artist.”
I have been working on figure drawings and animated drawings for about a year now, that reflect some kind of pathos or aspect of the human condition that I can’t put into words. The feeling I get when looking at the Michelangelo “slave” sculptures that seem to embody the struggle for both physical and spiritual release. Also, reading the news stories about the destruction of so many cities and towns in Syria, and other places, people who’s lives are turned inside out, I think that is all seeping into these drawings. Carol Heft
Carol Heft studied drawing and painting with American master Robert Brackman from the age of 12 to 15. She attended the Rhode Island School of Design where she studied with Leland Bell, Judy Pfaff, and Louisa Chase. Her work has been exhibited internationally, and she teaches studio art and art history at several colleges in the Lehigh Valley and in New York City. She currently lives and works in New York with her husband, musician Bill Warfield.
HAF: It seems as though you have a great affinity to early Renaissance art?
Carol: Teaching art history has given me a chance to appreciate the art of various cultures, times, regions, and styles. Like most people my age who grew up in the US during the “cold war”, both my public school and art education was saturated with western culture. I studied with Robert Brackman, an American master who taught at the Art Students’ League, when I was twelve years old. I learned from Brackman the academic traditions that came from the European Academies where many American artists were trained before the country developed its own academies.
HAF: How has your recent trip to Italy inspire your work? How does the work of the Italian masters impact your current work?
Carol: My first trip to Europe was in 1999, I was about 45 years old. I was spellbound seeing some of the art I had only previously seen in books. It was a life changing experience. I was drawn to painters like Rembrandt, Velazquez, Manet, Frans Halls, and others who used a painterly approach to depict their subjects. This year I visited Siena, Ravenna, Vienna, and Prague. Each city had its own rich history, art, and culture, quite different from each other. The mosaics in Ravenna, made when the city was the satellite capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, are stiff, elegant, sometimes doll-like iconic depictions of religious stories. In Vienna, the Kunsthistoriches Museum has a stunning collection of Italian and Northern European paintings. I made several drawings of paintings while I was there. In Prague, the museum has a collection of work by Rubens, and also many paintings by lesser known but equally great masters that I made drawings of. I love doing this, it gives me a chance to really study the painting, and inspires me to incorporate aspects that are moving or meaningful into my own drawings.
HAF: You have a great love for drawing. I have seen over the past year an incorporation of movement in your figure works. What inspired this display of movement?
Carol: Most recently I have been deeply affected by the hardships and suffering of people in places like Syria, but also in our own backyard, where there are pockets of neighborhoods where violence and poverty are rampant. For this reason, I began working on figure drawings that incorporate pathos and dignity, qualities that create a means for spiritual survival in the face of tragedy.
HAF: How do you envision this movement to develop in your work?
Carol: I don’t know that it will. I seem to have a wide range of interests, including design, three dimensional paper sculpture, handmade books, and other kinds of work. I have learned to let my work tell me what to do, when to stop, when to continue. Sometimes it is more clear that other times, but if I listen and look, I usually find out where I am headed.
There will be a free concert and gallery talk on Saturday, Sept. 16, from 1:00 – 3:00 PM at the gallery, performed by the Hell’s Kitchen Funk Orchestra, conducted by Carol’s husband, Bill Warfield. All are welcome.
for more information on composer Bill Warfield
Figure Drawings
September 5 – 30, 2017
Opening Reception
Thursday, Sept 7, 5 – 8 PM
