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DON
EDDY at Nancy Hoffman Gallery
November 4 - December 2, 2000
Don Eddy's new work takes him deeper into the explorations of nature, perception
and life's mysteries. Most of the pieces in this exhibition, painted over
the last two years, are multi-panelled: some have arched tympanum-like sections
which make reference to shapes used in Romanesque and Gothic architecture
as well as to sacred and religious paintings of medieval and Renaissance
times. |
Don Eddy, The
Dioras Cup, 1994-5,
acrylic on canvas, 50 x 50 inches |
Don Eddy, Catena
Aureum II, 1996-7,
acrylic on canvas, 52 x 52 inches |
By association
to the tympanum, Eddy's multi-panel paintings take on a quietly spiritual
aura in their contemplative examination of earth's changes and riches. Some
of the paintings are triptychs with three sections vertically or horizontally
juxtaposed, others are polyptychs, including four or five wooden panels.
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| While Eddy's
earlier works of the '80s were object oriented, depicting glassware, silverware
and toys on reflective glass shelves, his new paintings (and work of the
past decade) have turned outward--to the imagery we behold in the world--as
well as inward in their impact. No longer does the artist select images
for cerebral, narrative or meta-phorical reasons, he juxtaposes images that
work in poetic relationship to one another. Eddy calls these connections
of structure "echoing ecosystems" which anchor and join the panels
together. |
Don Eddy, G-IV,
1979-80,
acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30 inches |
Don Eddy, A
Divide Line: A Bridge Too Far,
2000, acrylic on canvas, 62 x 36 inches |
In
A Divided Line: A Bridge Too Far, a vertical triptych, a central
line-up of images confronts the viewer: a blazing autumnal tree in full
form on top, a heron in flight over turquoise waters in the center, and
a snow-filled lamplit staircase on the bottom. In his most recent painting,
The Monad Trilogy, named after the 17th century philosopher
Leibniz, Eddy finds connections between the Cat's Eye nebulae of the heavens
in the top panel, and the development of the human nervous system in the
bottom panel. |
| These glowing
ember-like red panels flank another autumnal scene, this time with more
skeletal trees reflected in a shimmering pond. The entire painting quivers
with light, with a palette unlike Eddy has ever utilized before, causing
one to ponder the relationship and inter-relatedness of the smallest building
block of the universe, a monad, to the vastness of the universe in the sky
itself. |
Don Eddy, The
Monad Trilogy, 2000,
acrylic on panel, 38 x 20 inches |
Don Eddy, Landtalk
Turning , 1999,
acrylic on wood panel, 16 x 43 inches |
| In
this exhibition, Eddy exhibits the first two parts of a trilogy based on
the natural elements: Seasons of Water and Seasons
of Light. Each of these works-approximately nine months in the
making-depicts the four seasons with rounded tympanum panels on top and
rectangular predella panels underneath. The predella images echo each season
in microcosm and in spirit. |
Don Eddy, Falling
Bodies and Scattered Light,
1999, acrylic on wood panel, 18 x 38 inches |
| Eddy utilizes
a unique system he has developed over the years, underpainting in three
colors. The first layer is a phthalocyanine green in a series of tiny circles
about 1/16th of an inch in diameter. Eddy meticulously paints each of the
eight panels first in tiny green circles, a meditative process of setting
the values for the painting. This layer is followed by brown, then purple
to separate the warm from the cool colors. |
Don Eddy, The
Protecting Veil II,
2000,
acrylic on panel, 20 x 44 inches |
| He may then
add between 20 to 30 layers of transparent color to achieve the radiant
final palette of each painting. Eddy does not project a slide when creating
his works; he draws a map onto the canvas, that only he can read, and then
begins to create a universe for the public to contemplate in its richness,
quietness and depth. |
Don Eddy, Dream
Weaver , 1999,
acrylic on wood panel, 18 x 38 inches |
Don Eddy, Seasons
of Water, 1999-2000,
acrylic on canvas, 53 x 98 inches |
Don Eddy, Seasons
of Light, 1998-1999,
acrylic on canvas, 53 x 99 inches |
Don Eddy, Narcissus'
Fall, 2000,
acrylic on canvas, 24 inches diameter |
Don Eddy was
born in Long Beach, California in 1944. He received a B.F.A. from the University
of Hawaii in 1967 and an M.F.A. in 1969 from the same institution. The artist
attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, 1969-70, for post-graduate
study. |
| Don Eddy's
work has been widely shown throughout this country at the Arkansas Arts
Center, Little Rock; Bergstrom-Mahler Museum, Neenah, Wisconsin; Boca Raton
Museum of Art, Florida; The Butler Museum of Art, Youngstown, Ohio; Boise
Art Museum, Idaho; The Brooklyn Museum, New York, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh;
Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, Florida; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio;
Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio; Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans; The
Contemporary Museum, Honolulu; Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, Massachusetts,
Duke University Museum of Art, Durham, North Carolina; Flint Institute of
Arts, Michigan; Greenville County Museum of Art, South Carolina; Heckscher
Museum, Huntington, New York; The Huntington Museum of Art, West Virginia;
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana; Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale; The
Museum of Modern Art, New York; Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor,
New York; The Oakland Museum, California; Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma
City; Orlando Museum of Art, Florida; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,
Philadelphia; The Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma; San Antonio
Museum of Art, Texas; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; Tampa
Museum of Art, Florida; Tucson Museum of Art, Arizona; Virginia Beach Center
for the Arts, Virginia; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; Whitney
Museum of America Art, New York; Wichita Art Museum, Kansas; among others,
and abroad at Australia National Gallery, Canberra; Gl. Holtegaards, Copenhagen;
The Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon; Kunstverein, Hannover; Kunsthalle, Nuremberg;
Salas de Exposiciones de Bellas Artes, Madrid. |
Don Eddy, Anterus
Light , 1999,
acrylic on wood panel, 30 x 14 inches |
Don Eddy, Undersong, 1999,
acrylic on wood panel, 38 x 20 inches
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The artist's
work is represented in numerous public collections: Akron Art Museum; Boise
Art Museum, Idaho; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio; The Contemporary Museum,
Honolulu; Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, Massachusetts; Evansville
Museum of Arts & Science, Indiana; Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University,
Massachusetts; Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Indiana; Solomon R. Guggenheim
Museum, New York; Honolulu Academy of Arts, Hawaii; Mississippi Museum of
Art, Jackson; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Art, Oklahoma
City; Pioneer Museum and Haggin Galleries, California; Rhode Island School
of Design Museum of Art, Providence; San Antonio Museum of Art, Texas; Santa
Barbara Museum of Art, California; J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky;
Springfield Art Museum, Missouri; Storm King Art Center, Mountainville,
New York; The Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio; Whitney Museum of American Art,
New York; among others, and in collections abroad: Israel Museum, Tel Aviv;
Museo de Arte Moderno, Bogota; Neue Galerie, Aschen; Sainte Etienne Museum,
France; Utrecht Museum, Belgium. |
A full-color catalogue published by Duke University Press in conjunction
with the artist's traveling museum exhibition, is now available at Nancy
Hoffman Gallery. The catalogue, "Don Eddy: From Logic to Mystery,"
includes a foreword by Duke Museum Director, Michael P. Mezzatesta and a
preface by Amei Wallach. A full-color comprehensive book on the artist by
Donald Kuspit will be published by Hudson Hills Press in 2001.
Don Eddy resides in New York.
More about Don Eddy
Don Eddy's Biography |
Don Eddy, Shapechanger,
1999,
acrylic on wood, 27 x 14 inches |
