With all the storms
this month, what better way to end September than with a storm of color? And what better way
to end with color than to show you the work of an artist who is 1) committed to
his modernist vision in painting, and 2) committed to extending an
unpretentious appreciation of modernism to
whomever wants to share it with him. I wish every town had an artist like
Charles Clough with his open studio/participatory events.
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Charles Clough (born 1951, US), Cruor, 1993. Enamel on Masonite, 24" x 32" (61 x 81.3 cm). Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY. © 2017 Charles Clough. (AK-2523) |
What interests me even more is that Clough’s work was
featured in an exhibition called The Pictures Generation in 2009 at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It ostensibly featured artists who were
involved with appropriated imagery like Sherrie Levine, Robert Longo, Jack
Goldstein, and Cindy Sherman, but also, I guess, included artists who
appropriated processes in abstraction. The exhibition included artists who founded
the Hallwalls
Contemporary Art Center exhibits in Buffalo in the 1970s, which Clough
co-founded with Robert Longo and Cindy Sherman in 1974.
Clough was born and raised in Buffalo, studied at Pratt
Institute in Brooklyn (1965–1970) and Ontario College of Art (1971–1972). He
also studied at the University of Buffalo Center for Media Studies (1973–1974)
and New York University Information Technologies Institute (1997–1998). He has
taught at Columbia University and the Rhode Island Institute of Design. He
decided to devote himself to being an artist in 1971. I cannot say enough about
how much I admire the diversity of this artist and his body of work. I admire
him even more for his open studios called Clufffalo in East Aurora, NY, where total strangers are invited to
lend their efforts to collaborative paintings. After
you read about Clufffalo, you’ll
understand why I said I wish there were artists like Clough in every town!
More works by this fabulous painter:
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Charles Clough (born 1951, US), August Sixteenth, 1990. Enamel on board, 16 1/2" x 12 1/4" (41.9 x 31.1 cm). Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY. © 2017 Charles Clough. (AK-2524) |
Thank you for posting!
ReplyDeleteYou're so welcome. I'm kicking myself for not featuring you before this!
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