Monday, August 26, 2024

Drawing and Sculpture Show 2024

 



Mark Huddle

The woman appears to be waiting for someone to emerge onto the balcony below.

The setup recalls David and Bathsheba - with positions and genders reversed.




Jean Bourdichon c. 1500

La Paula Herrera

A fine piece for a nightstand.

So quiet and relaxing.


George Clark


She’s lying beside her lover, but she’s staring directly back at you.

I like that idea!



Sculpture: Misha Livshulz
Painting: George Freeman

The one does seem to present the mental state of the other.
 Freeman is retro in both figurative and non-objective painting.
Look him up on Saatchiart.com



Chris Heron

One of my favorite models, D’Eric,
expressing impatience with holding still.

Left: Tom Zamiar
Right: Sondra Pfeffer 

Foreground:
An athletic model with an archaic Greek attitude  meets a sculptor with same.
Background:
One of those tchotchkes that Chicago imagists  love to collect

Deborah Paige-Jackson. City Girl Charm.

A visual world that’s quite different from the Euro-centric Palette and Chisel.

Feels like it comes from Africa or South Asia.
Might be a film poster from Nollywood or Bollywood

Sunday, August 18, 2024

The Mulligan in the Library


 



Charles Mulligan, Steel Worker, plaster


Last week, the descendants of Charles Mulligan (1866-1916)  gave this fine piece to the Palette and Chisel - and I’m doubting they even knew he was ever a member  
- except for the attention given him by this blog.

In 2006, I biked down to Hyde Park to see his statue of Lincoln in Oak Woods Cemetery.




What an elegant, finely composed sculpture that sweetly asserts itself into its surrounding space.
As Russian trained Misha has noted, it has "scale",
i.e. the quality of looking large regardless of size.



What a gentle, intelligent face.
What strong, sensitive modeling.

Three of Chicago’s greatest figure sculptors were associated with our organization back in its early years: the other two being Lorado Taft and Albin Polasek.

All three were leading educators as well - and the above piece bears witness to Mulligan’s own thorough training in a tradition that dates back to the Parthenon.  It began  to fade around 1950 and is now practically gone. (at least in our country. I don’t think the SAIC sculpture department even has a regular live figure study class any more)