Amazing to see in Person

Barnett Newman
American 1905-1970
The Beginning 1946
Oil on Canvas
“In the 1940s Newman became preocupied with the Old Testament story of creation and began selecting titles that referenced the book of Genesis. In The Beginning, the bands of paint that emerge from the base interrupt a richly variegated field of color, a sort of primordial fog. The artist created these stripes with masking tape, which he applied to the canvas as a guidline before adding the surrounding color. This work is an important precursor to Newman’s mature paintings, which are characterized by a single verticle band, or ‘zip,’ that devides the composition.” –(Chicago Institute of Art)

Margherita Manzelli

Italian, Born 1968

Dopo la finne (After the End) 2008

Oil on Canvas

“Margherita Manzelli creates hounting, oddly ravishing images of solitary women. Her Meticulusly crafted paintings and delicate works on paper imagine wan, languid, at times emaciated or subtly deformed female characters isolated within an abstracted, pictorial dream space. Almost always seated or otherwise recumbent, the mute still women are engaged in no activity other than staring, their penetrating eyes locked ina weighty knowing confrontation with the viewer. Manzelli’s spectral women seem painfully aware of the fact that they are on display. Her characters are often attired in or surrounded by colorful, richly detailed clothing and textiles. Importantly, the artist does work from photographs and does not use models- thefigures and their enfiornments come entirely from her imagination. Although this figure does resemble the artist, Manzelli does not consider her work to be self portrature.” -(Chicago Institute of Art)