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Email PageThe Man, The Master, The Magic
February 15, 2008- April 12, 2008
Reception: February 15, 6:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Herbert Gentry
G.R. N'Namdi Gallery
526 W 26th St Herbert Gentry I and Other |
The paintings and drawings in this retrospective exhibition vary in size and range from 1964 until 2003. Gentry’s formation as a painter should be considered in light of the passion he brought to his identity as a painter, “A painter paints, a fighter fights, a writer writes,” he would say. Gentry painted his world on canvas, alluding to his fascination with the power of social relationships and the allure of the journey. His aesthetic speaks through decisive lines and a strong sense of composition. His canvasses are intuitively descriptive of his international experiences living in Harlem and throughout Europe. He stated: “Painting is very much about sex, it’s about love, it’s about putting things together”. The drawings featured in this exhibition, although as extemporaneous as his paintings, are more laid-back and lovely. They're filled with sinfully sinuous lines forming erotic shapes inspired by the curvaceous form of the female body.
Herbert Gentry (1919-2003) was born in Pittsburgh and raised in New York City during the Harlem Renaissance. His mother, originally from Jamaica, was a dancer and Ziegfeld Follies showgirl, fostered his artistic sensibilities by exposing him to art museums, jazz music and the theatre. ”Harlem prepared me for Paris,” Gentry confirmed when he arrived in 1946 to study painting on the G.I. Bill. Following his Service in the U.S. Army during World War II, Gentry moved to Paris, and studied at L’Academie de la Grande Chaumiere and remained there to hone his talents in a freer and more accepting racial and cultural environment.
During Gentry’s first decade in Paris, he was exposed to a variety of aesthetic movements including Existentialism, Tachism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism and Cubism. Paris also afforded his initial exposure to African art. He can be described as a complex man whose artistic themes became layered and integrated over the years. His vision and philosophy were forged in the adventures of his life, his residence-not only in Paris-but significantly in Copenhagen, Stockholm, Malmo, and his beloved New York City.
…. “Yet there is a reverence for art, and a wonderful capacity for resolving the forms and colors in his paintings that achieve an articulated balance in which the tension of the psychological elements are counterpoised into an overall order, so that we can only say this is “Gentry’s world.” *Romare Bearden* Essay in An Ocean Apart: American Artists Abroad, 1983 Studio Museum of Harlem
Gentry’s work has been exhibited in more than 120 exhibitions and can be found in numerous public and private collections, including those of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, the National Museum of American Art of the Smithsonian, the Biblioteque Nationale de Paris, Moderna Museet in Stockholm and The Studio Museum in Harlem, to name a few. He was the first non-Scandinavian invited in 1975 to exhibit a twenty year retrospective exhibition at the Swedish Royal Academy of Art in Stockholm.
An exhibition catalogue featuring texts and photographs of the artist and his work will be available.
Books and DVDs related to artists in this show
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G.R. N'Namdi Gallery was last updated: 2008-10-07
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