 |
Email PageNicolas Carone: Sculptures
May 12, 2007- June 22, 2007
Reception: May 12, 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Nicolas Carone
Lohin Geduld Gallery
531 W 25th StExtended trough June 22th.
Catalogue available with introduction by Barbara Rose
Lohin Geduld Gallery is proud to present our second exhibition of works by Nicolas Carone. The previous show surveyed Carone’s voluminous outpouring of drawings, dating from the 1950s to the present. The focus of our current exhibition is on Carone’s activity as a sculptor, presenting wax figures and a series of stone heads which are being shown in the United States for the first time.
Through painting, drawing, and sculpture, Nicolas Carone explores the metaphoric pathways connecting the complexities of human existence with the artistic process. His early associations with Abstract Expressionism, Surrealism, and the Italian metaphysical painters led Carone to the understanding that there is much to be discovered beyond the surface of things. A love of Michelangelo and the classical canon gave him a powerful formal means with which to carry out his explorations. It is this tension between formal structure and a need to free himself from it that remains at the heart of Carone’s art.
For over three decades Carone has carved fieldstones found near his Umbrian farmhouse. Like his automatic drawing practice in which figures appear out of unconscious marks, Carone finds traces and suggestions of human form in the stones’ natural formations. With hammer and chisel he frees his subject from its surroundings. Eyes, noses, pouting lips, and slender necks emerge. The stones transform into heads with faces that emote serenity and the gift of ancient knowledge. Carone’s studio lies in the countryside near the hilltop town of Todi. In this setting Roman antiquity seems to permeate the air, soil, and light. Renaissance towers punctuate a landscape of rolling fields and thick stands of Italian oak. Here nature and culture meld, forming an ethos which has inspired artists from the Etruscan period to present day. Carone manages to capture this milieu in each magnificent head, while still making them strikingly individual. The character, shape, fissures, and colors of each stone guide the process of Carone’s chisel while he carves the native rock. These are collaborative pieces between artist, history, and nature.
Carone’s wax figures are made in his studios in New York City and Hudson, NY. This ongoing series of torsos and full figures conveys an overwhelming, tactile sensuality. Through additions and subtractions Carone shapes, scrapes, and hones pliable wax into figures that are alternately athletic, classical, or overtly erotic. These are highly personalized works, showing the artist’s hand print (literally), and knowledge of anatomy from a life-long study of the human form. They are obsessively caressed and coaxed into being, and have the power to captivate and seduce.
Nicolas Carone has been closely associated with the development of Modernism. His work is represented in many collections around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. He was awarded both the Prix de Rome and a Fulbright Fellowship. For a complete biography and images of his works please visit our website.
This exhibition allows us to see Nicolas Carone as a rare and important artist. He is both an inheritor of the Abstract Expressionist legacy and an artist of powerful originality and insight into the human condition. Lohin Geduld Gallery is delighted to present these sculptures to the public.
Books and DVDs related to artists in this show
|
 | |||||||||||||||||
|
© 2005-2008 chelseaartgalleries.com | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy
| Site Map |
