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JOSEPH
RAFFAEL
February 7
- March 6, 2001
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| Joseph Raffael's
new monumental watercolors are a celebration of nature and life's force
manifest in swaying flowers, mauve colored lily ponds, and images of Tibetan
tankas with nature hovering at the edges and as background. While heralding
that which is beautiful in nature, the artist invites the viewer into a
meditation, a heightened visual awareness and an appreciation of nature's
infinite abundance. His large, luminous watercolors venture into new territories
of color, juxtaposing glowing gold with deep mysterious rich blues, purples
and greens. |
Joseph Raffael, LATE WINTER BOUQUET,
2000,
watercolor on paper, 64 x 44 inches |
Joseph Raffael, SPIRIT, 2000,
watercolor on paper, 46 x 44 inches |
Sometimes
the colors become subject and drama, particularly when the artist uses white
or black. Borders figure dominantly in his new paintings suggesting the
silk fabrics that surround tanka paintings as well as Chinese and Japanese
scrolls. His borders too are filled with voluptuous varying colors and focus
the viewer on the contemplative world the artist paints. His often written
about "jewel-like" passages are richer than ever, his faceting
of color more complex, all splendors of bubbling, moving paint. |
| To capture
what the eye cannot always see, Raffael probes the secrets of nature's private
and splendid moments. His new images of nature consecrate ritual moments
of the day, such as Dawn at Kodai where lily flower buds appear like candles
sitting on pads, or Along the Way where tall red blooms line up in processional
fashion with regal bearing. There has been a shift in the wind of Raffael's
images, they are more focused, more intense. Even in a still life of flowers
in a Chinese vase of grand scale one senses the drama of nature's gifts,
permanent and impermanent symbolizing the life cycle. |
Joseph Raffael, MORNING AT KODAI, 2000
watercolor on paper, 44 x 66 inches |
Joseph Raffael, ALONG THE WAY, 2000
watercolor on paper, 41 x 68 inches |
Joseph Raffael, BIRD TANKA, 2000
watercolor on paper, 63 x 43 inches |
For the first
time in his new works the artist embraces his love of Eastern philosophy
and Buddhist imagery. He has painted a series of watercolors that unite
Tibetan tankas or mandalas with bubbling waters as frame and background.
Several of the backgrounds grow from an earlier image of Raffael's, Wind
on Water, Spring, an emblematic piece, on the edge between representation
and abstraction. Some of the mandalas have birds on branches in front of
spiritual images. |
| The artist
now has several aviaries in his home with birds of many kinds and myriad
colors for the pleasure of integrating these creatures of flight into his
works. Birds have long been an interest and leitmotif in the artist's oeuvre,
symbols of spirit and freedom. |
Joseph Raffael, HARVEST MOON, 2000
watercolor on paper, 44 x 62 inches |
Joseph Raffael, ALL THE DIFFERENT AGES, 2001
watercolor on paper, 44 x 66 inches
|
Joseph Raffael, VIEW, 2000
watercolor on paper, 53 x 44 inches |
One of the
works in this series entitled View depicts Vincent van Gogh in the center
of a tanka-like circle. This is a perfect fusion of the artist's homage
to art history and one of his heroes, van Gogh and his interest in the gentle
ways of Buddhism, all surrounded by light and radiating color. |
Joseph Raffael, THE GIFT, 2000
watercolor on paper, 26 x 40 inches |
| Joseph
Raffael was born in Brooklyn in 1933. He received his B.F.A. from Yale University
in 1957 and was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to Florence and Rome in 1958-1959
and a Tiffany Fellowship in 1960. |
Joseph Raffael, APOSH, 2001
watercolor on paper, 40 x 58 inches |
| The
artist's work has been exhibited in this country at the American Academy
of Arts and Letters, New York; ARCO Center for Visual Art, Los Angeles;
Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock; The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois;
Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi; Arts Center Galleries, Old Forge,
New York; Bergstrom-Mahler Museum, Neenah, Wisconsin; The Butler Institute
of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio; The Canton Museum of Art, Ohio; City
University of New York, Baruch College; Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio; Davenport
Museum of Art, Iowa; Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington; The Denver Art Museum,
Colorado; Elvehjem Art Center, Madison, Wisconsin; Flint Institute of Arts,
Michigan; Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Indiana; Gibbs Museum of Art, Charleston,
South Carolina, Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee; The Jacksonville
Museum, Florida; Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul; Museum of Art, Fort
Lauderdale, Florida; Museum of Contemporary Religious Art, Saint Louis;
Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida; |
Joseph Raffael, ILLUMINATIONS SPRING, 2000
watercolor on paper, 60 x 44 inches |
| The Museum
of Modern Art, New York; National Academy of Design, New York; Newport Art
Museum, Rhode Island; Newport Harbor Art Museum, California; Oklahoma City
Art Museum, Oklahoma; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia;
San Francisco International Airport, California; San Francisco Museum of
Modern Art, California; Scottsdale Art Center, Arizona; Sioux City Art Center,
Iowa; State University of NewYork, Stony Brook; Tucson Museum of Art, Arizona;
Wichita Art Museum, Kansas; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Leigh
Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, Wisconsin; among other institutions.
His work has also been shown at the Fukui City Art Museum; Isetan Museum
of Art, Tokyo; Miyagi Museum of Art; Museum of Modern Art, Wakayama; Sogo
Museum of Art; Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts; Tokushima Modern
Art Museum; Museum of Modern Art, Shiba; and Kochi Prefectural Museum of
Folk Art, all in Japan. |
Joseph Raffael, ILLUMINATIONS SUMMER, 2000
watercolor on paper, 60 x 44 inches |
Joseph Raffael, SPRING BRIDGE, 2000
watercolor on paper, 44 x 65 inches |
| Raffael's
work is represented in many museum collections, among them: Allentown Art
Museum, Pennsylvania; The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; The Butler
Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio; The Canton Museum of Art, Ohio;
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio; The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu; Crocker
Art Museum, Sacramento, California; Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington; The
Denver Art Museum, Colorado; Des Moines Art Center, Iowa; Everson Museum
of Art, Syracuse, New York; Fort Worth Art Museum, Texas; Hirshhorn Museum
and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Jacksonville
Art Museum, Florida; Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska; Krannert Art Museum,
Champaign, Illinois; Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; Long Beach Museum,
California; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California; The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina;
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg,
Florida; Museum of Outdoor Art, Englewood, Colorado; National Collection
of Fine Arts of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; The Oakland
Museum, California; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania; Rahr West
Art Museum, Manitowoc, Wisconsin; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California;
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California; J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville,
Kentucky; The Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio; Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt
Lake City; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis;
Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Maryland; Whitney Museum of American
Art, New York. |
Joseph Raffael, TIGRE'S SPRING, 2000
watercolor on paper, 42 x 60 inches |
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