Joseph Raffael at Nancy Hoffman Gallery

JOSEPH RAFFAEL

Nancy Hoffman Gallery proudly presents watercolors of monumental scale by Joseph Raffael,

October 29 through November 29, 2005.

A catalogue accompanies the exhibition, with excerpts from the artist's journal on the "Making of a Painting."

Joseph and Lannis Raffael, France 2005

Joseph Raffael, Pond for F. Garcia Lorca, 2005,
(DETAIL) watercolor on paper, 76 x 76 inches

Joseph Raffael, Pond for F. Gracia Lorca, 2005,
watercolor on paper, 76 x 76 inches

In his 8th decade, Raffael not only seems to be hitting his stride in the medium he has made his own, watercolor, he has leaped past his prior works into terrain that is new and fresh, poetic and powerful, familiar yet new. Nature remains the artist's subject not just of choice, but also of passion. When looking at a Raffael watercolor of a flower or a pond, one can feel life's pulse. The artist not only explores nature--ponds at different times of day with light glinting on the surface, flowers in varying states of budding and ageing-- his subject matter matters to him, it is embedded in his being.

He lives in the midst of a garden, which encircles his house and steps down in levels on a hillside. It is a unique garden, personal, not manicured, filled with a riot of color in spring, and with myriad greens from the wide-ranging species of plants, trees and bushes in the winter. The garden is his source and resource.

In this garden Raffael and his wife, Lannis, created a carp pond so that he could see and photo-graph fish at all times of day, in all different lights, and use these photographs as a source for his work. Around the pond are plants, bamboo, flowers, an earthly paradise.

Joseph Raffael, Change of the Season, 2005,
watercolor on paper, 68 x 45 inches

Mark Daniel Cohen writes of Raffael's new work in his catalogue essay:

For almost 20 years the artist has lived in France creating his paintings in his studio to the exclusion of art world activities. His practice is his commitment, he paints six days a week, ten hours a day in the quiet of his studio, his work is a personal meditation on life. "What Raffael has retained and nurtured in his work is the aesthetic emotion-the love of paint as a method of vision, the palpably created vision that seeks the unfiltered truth of observation. In short, Raffael has retained the love of and devotion to beauty, or, to say the same thing in other words, his art has never lost its connection to life, the vivacity of the image, to the sheer zest and urgency of animated nature, and of painting, of art, itself."

Joseph Raffael, Homage to Carolyn Brady, 1939-2005,
2005, watercolor on paper, 41 x 44 inches

Joseph Raffael, Life Streams, 2004,
watercolor on paper, 40 x 56 inches

Joseph Raffael, Eternal Return: Spring 2004,
(DETAIL) 2004, watercolor on paper, 45 x 67 inches

Joseph Raffael, Eternal Return: Spring 2004,
2004, watercolor on paper, 45 x 67 inches

Joseph Raffael, Inman's Sacred Pond, 2004,
watercolor on paper, 37 x 52 inches

Joseph Raffael, Dream Fish II, 2004,
watercolor on paper, 44 x 64 inches

For almost 20 years the artist has lived in France creating his paintings in his studio to the exclusion of art world activities. His practice is his commitment, he paints six days a week, ten hours a day in the quiet of his studio, his work is a personal meditation on life.

Joseph Raffael, Interior: R.S. and F.D.D., 2005
( DETAIL) watercolor on paper, 61 x 44 inches

Joseph Raffael, Interior: R. S. and F.D.D., 2005
watercolor on paper, 61 x 44 inches

Joseph Raffael, Ouverture, 2004,
watercolor on paper, 22 x 30 inches

Joseph Raffael, Mysteries, 2005,
watercolor on paper, 60 x 44 inches

Joseph Raffael, Roses for Vera, 2004,
watercolor on paper, 67 x 45 inches

Joseph Raffael, Peony, 2004,
watercolor on paper, 36 x 26 inches

Joseph Raffael, Re-Entry, 2003,
(DETAIL) watercolor on paper, 65 x 45 inches

Joseph Raffael, Re-Entry, 2003,
watercolor on paper, 65 x 45 inches

Joseph Raffael, Renewal, 2004,
(DETAIL) watercolor on paper, 61 x 45 inches

Joseph Raffael, Renewal, 2004,
watercolor on paper, 61 x 45 inches

Included in this exhibition are several close-in views of trees in the full bloom of their season: one of fall and two of spring. In "Renewal Spring 2003-04," an autumnal tree is dressed in flaming red leaves. The tree bursts forth from a tapestry-like composition at the height of autumn, reflected in the pond in front of it, the essence of a seasonal moment.

Joseph Raffael, Return of Spring, 2005,
(DETAIL) watercolor on paper, 66 x 76 inches

Joseph Raffael, Return of Spring, 2005,
watercolor on paper, 66 x 76 inches

Joseph and Lannis Raffael, France, 2005

Raffael captures another seasonal moment in "Return of Spring," in which a profusion of mauve-pink blossoms of a peach tree twine, intertwine and reach skyward. Visible behind the blossoms is a pale blue sky; spring perfumes the air. Included in the exhibit is a still life by the artist called "Change of the Season." Perhaps Raffael's focus on the change of seasons in his new work is a reflection of his contemplation on life in this new decade.

Joseph Raffael, Summer's End, 2004,
(DETAIL) watercolor on paper, 70 x 45 inches

Joseph Raffael, Summer's End, 2004,
watercolor on paper, 70 x 45 inches

Joseph Raffael, France, 2005

Joseph Raffael'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; Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, Indiana; 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; Las Vegas Museum of Art, Nevada; 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; 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; Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, Florida; San Francisco International Airport, California; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; Scottsdale Art Center, Arizona; Sioux City Art Center, Iowa; State University of New York, 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 institu-tions. His work has also been shown at the Musee d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, Strasbourg, France; Fukui City Art Museum; Hokodate Museum of Art, Hokkaido; Iwaki City Museum; Iwate Prefectural Museum; Isetan Museum of Art, Tokyo; Kumamoto Prefectural Museum of Art; Miyagi Museum of Art, Sendai; 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, and Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan.

BIOGRAPHY
Joseph Raffael was born in Brooklyn, New York, 1933
EDUCATION
1958-59 Fulbright Fellowship to Florence and Rome 1954-56 Yale School of Fine Arts, B.F.A., studied with Josef Albers 1954 Summer Fellowship Yale-Norfolk School 1953-54 Attended Cooper Union, New York

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Allentown Art Museum, Pennsylvania The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois Brauer Museum of Art, Valparaiso, Indiana The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland The Canton Museum of Art, Ohio The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio University of Connecticut, Bridgeport 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 University of Georgia, Athens Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Jacksonville Art Museum, Florida Glenn C. Janss Collection, Sun Valley, Idaho 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 University of Massachusetts, Amherst

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida The Museum of Outdoor Arts, Englewood, Colorado National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. University of New Mexico, Albuquerque The Oakland Museum, California Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania Rahr West Art Museum, Manitowoc, Wisconsin San Francisco Ballet, California San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California The Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky The Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio Tulsa Performing Arts Center, Oklahoma University Art Museum, Berkeley, California Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Maryland Whitney Museum of American Art, New York