CURATORS: Susan R. Kirshenbaum and Catherine Merrill
ARTISTS: Joseph Abbati, Douglas Andelin, Madelyn Covey, Jane Fisher, Mary Graham, Isidoro, Susan R. Kirshenbaum, Catherine Merrill, Stephen Namara, Diane Olivier, Sharon Paster, Fernando Reyes, Alex Rosmarin, Randall Sexton (deceased)*, May Shei, Sandra Speidel, Peter Steinhart, and Charles H. Stinson
ARTICLES ABOUT THE SHOW: See the article by Jonathan Farrell California + News and The Figurative Art Movement of The Bay Area isn’t Dead
ARTISTS: Joseph Abbati, Douglas Andelin, Madelyn Covey, Jane Fisher, Mary Graham, Isidoro, Susan R. Kirshenbaum, Catherine Merrill, Stephen Namara, Diane Olivier, Sharon Paster, Fernando Reyes, Alex Rosmarin, Randall Sexton (deceased)*, May Shei, Sandra Speidel, Peter Steinhart, and Charles H. Stinson
ARTICLES ABOUT THE SHOW: See the article by Jonathan Farrell California + News and The Figurative Art Movement of The Bay Area isn’t Dead
Left: Paintings by Sandra Speidel
Right: Drawing and sculpture by Douglas Andelin
Painting and sculpture by Sharon Paster
Oil paintings by Randall Sexton*
Pastel, monoprint, and ink drawings by Diane Olivier
Co-creators: Catherine Merrill & Susan Kirshenbaum
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Paintings by Jane Fisher (left) and Madelyn Covery (right) and ceramic vase by Catherine Merrill.
Paintings by May Shei
Left to right: Mary Graham, Douglas Andelin, Fernando Reyes, Mary Graham
Paintings by Joseph Abbati
Left to right: Abbati, Kirshenbaum, Merrill, Fisher, Sexton
Mixed media paintings by Madelyn Covey
Susan R. Kirshenbaum's horizontal pieces: Verdant, Bed of Roses, and Bee Season, all 48wx24h, digital original collages
Catherine Merrill, curator, with her ceramic sculptures (Jane Fisher’s paintings on walls).
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Susan R. Kirshenbaum with her new piece, Pompeii, 24wx48h, a digital original collage printed on metal, framed, one of 5 pieces in the series “Women and Nature” that is in this show.
Left: Mary Graham mask sculptures
Right: Stephen Namara mixed media
Foreground: Bronze sculptures by Charles H. Stinson
Foreground: Sculptures by Isidoro
Mixed media, paintings, and monoprints by Fernando Reyes
Susan R. Kirshenbaum on the last day of show events!
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PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:
Joseph Abbati ~ Douglas Andelin ~ Madelyn Covey ~ Jane Fisher ~ Mary Graham ~ Isidoro ~ Susan R. Kirshenbaum ~ Catherine Merrill ~ Stephen Namara ~ Diane Olivier ~ Sharon Paster ~ Fernando Reyes ~ Alex Rosmarin ~ Randall Sexton ~ May Shei ~ Sandra Speidel ~ Peter Steinhart ~ Charles H. Stinson
The Bay Area Figurative Movement never died and continues to thrive. San Francisco Bay Area artists and models founded the Models Guild in 1946, and it’s no wonder that we still have such a healthy, lively community, chock-full of dedicated talent.
Some of us even flourished during COVID and sheltering-in-place, as we continued drawing, painting, and sculpting on Zoom sessions around the world. What does our figurative community look like? We are artists and models; teachers and students; our styles are anywhere from classical to pop; our techniques are everything from digital to hand-ground pigments; and our community encompasses the very experienced and the relatively new to exhibiting.
This exhibition explores a full range of styles and approaches combined with skill and craft.
Curators: Susan R. Kirshenbaum and Catherine Merrill
Joseph Abbati ~ Douglas Andelin ~ Madelyn Covey ~ Jane Fisher ~ Mary Graham ~ Isidoro ~ Susan R. Kirshenbaum ~ Catherine Merrill ~ Stephen Namara ~ Diane Olivier ~ Sharon Paster ~ Fernando Reyes ~ Alex Rosmarin ~ Randall Sexton ~ May Shei ~ Sandra Speidel ~ Peter Steinhart ~ Charles H. Stinson
The Bay Area Figurative Movement never died and continues to thrive. San Francisco Bay Area artists and models founded the Models Guild in 1946, and it’s no wonder that we still have such a healthy, lively community, chock-full of dedicated talent.
Some of us even flourished during COVID and sheltering-in-place, as we continued drawing, painting, and sculpting on Zoom sessions around the world. What does our figurative community look like? We are artists and models; teachers and students; our styles are anywhere from classical to pop; our techniques are everything from digital to hand-ground pigments; and our community encompasses the very experienced and the relatively new to exhibiting.
This exhibition explores a full range of styles and approaches combined with skill and craft.
Curators: Susan R. Kirshenbaum and Catherine Merrill
The Bay Area Figurative Art Movement is Not Dead!
By Jonathan Ferrel
Susan Kirshenbaum
When most people think about art and the movements that shaped it in our society, they usually think of places like Paris or New York. Yet few know that one of the most significant art movements was centered right here in the San Francisco Bay Area. It's called, "The Bay Area Figurative Movement".
Catherine Merrill
On January 5, Sausalito Center for The Arts (SCA) installed one of largest and most comprehensive Figurative Art exhibits of its kind with over 18 artists displaying up to five pieces each. “Sausalito Center for The Arts has the space for it and we are so pleased and honored to provide it,” said SCA Executive Director Shiva Pakdel.
The exhibit entitled ‘Third Generation: The Bay Area Figurative Movement Today,’ is curated by established artists Susan K. Kirshenbaum and Catherine Merrill, (seen in photos above). They are also participants in the exhibit. Their individual careers in art span the period from what is regarded as ‘the First Generation’ ‘the Bridge Generation,’ and ‘the Second Generation.
Both curators spoke about how much the exhibit means to them and the other participating artists. As they explained and as websites like The Art Story. The Bay Area Figurative Movement (also known as the Bay Area Figurative School; or Bay Area Figurative Art, Bay Area Figuration, and similar variations) was a mid-20th Century art movement founded after World War II in the 1940s. It was made up of a group of artists in the San Francisco Bay Area who abandoned working in the prevailing style of Abstract Expressionism in favor of a return to figuration in painting.
The exhibit entitled ‘Third Generation: The Bay Area Figurative Movement Today,’ is curated by established artists Susan K. Kirshenbaum and Catherine Merrill, (seen in photos above). They are also participants in the exhibit. Their individual careers in art span the period from what is regarded as ‘the First Generation’ ‘the Bridge Generation,’ and ‘the Second Generation.
Both curators spoke about how much the exhibit means to them and the other participating artists. As they explained and as websites like The Art Story. The Bay Area Figurative Movement (also known as the Bay Area Figurative School; or Bay Area Figurative Art, Bay Area Figuration, and similar variations) was a mid-20th Century art movement founded after World War II in the 1940s. It was made up of a group of artists in the San Francisco Bay Area who abandoned working in the prevailing style of Abstract Expressionism in favor of a return to figuration in painting.
“The art history textbooks say the movement ended,” said Kirshenbaum. “It didn’t end, it’s still going on!” She exclaimed. “We describe ourselves as ‘The Third Generation’ of the movement because we are the group of Figurative artists that are post-1970 and beyond,” said Kirshenbaum. “We may not be included in the textbooks yet,” she added.
Charles Stinson
The use of live models is important to this type of artwork,” said Merrill as her work is primarily sculpture and the human form. “People (especially Americans) often get upset over the depiction of the human body in art. I don’t get upset,” said Merrill, I celebrate it.”
Figurative art is basically any art (be it painted, sculpted or sketched) that illustrates real life forms and imagery. A model can be a person or anything that is from actual real life that the artist uses as inspiration to draw, paint or sculpt.
Figurative art is basically any art (be it painted, sculpted or sketched) that illustrates real life forms and imagery. A model can be a person or anything that is from actual real life that the artist uses as inspiration to draw, paint or sculpt.
Mary Graham
Figurative art has been going on for centuries,” said Merrill, from the ancients to the Renaissance period and beyond.” Both Merrill and Kirshenbaum chimed almost in unison “It has always been with us!”
Merrill wanted to clarify that the reason the exhibit at SCA is so significant is because as she said. “We as a culture are in the midst of the technological revolution,” she said. “But Figurative art is about working with one’s hands, rolling up one’s sleeves and connecting to the work, it’s not on a screen, added Merrill, it’s live.”
Merrill wanted to clarify that the reason the exhibit at SCA is so significant is because as she said. “We as a culture are in the midst of the technological revolution,” she said. “But Figurative art is about working with one’s hands, rolling up one’s sleeves and connecting to the work, it’s not on a screen, added Merrill, it’s live.”
Isidoro Angeles
“I’m not interested in the abstract concept art that doesn’t express humanity,” said Merrill. Kirshenbaum agreed, saying “the live interaction between artist and model/scenery builds a story from it.”
This is not to say that artists like Kirshenbaum, Merrill and others shun technology. It’s just that they can see where important skills are being lost or under-utilized. “I use digital technology to help in my art,” said Kirshenbaum. “But I can see were that the basic foundations of art making is are not being taught as much in art schools.” “I consider technology a tool, said Kirshenbaum, but an artist must have learn the basic skills; sketching-drawing, painting, sculpting and so forth.”
In putting together the exhibit, Pakdel, Kirshenbaum and Merrill wanted the works featured to be extensive, diverse and inclusive of as many of the top Bay Area figurative artists as possible, providing each artist with a mini-show within the show. “This type of art takes work, said Merrill, while the hands and the brain are integrated, there’s an intrinsic connection that goes beyond thoughts in the head.” “The human body, said Merrill, and the entire physical world is so alive it thinks on its own apart from what we think and get stuck on just in our heads.”
COVID-19 made a considerable impact as Merrill noted. “The pandemic isolated us from one another and distanced us from the galleries.” “Yet ironically the isolation of the pandemic pushed some artists to do some of their best work.”
The exhibit hopes to express not only the talent of the participants but also the joy at being able to gather and experience art together as a community.
The participating artists are: Joseph Abbati ~ Douglas Andelin ~ Madelyn Covey ~ Jane Fisher ~ Mary Graham ~ Isidoro ~ Susan R. Kirshenbaum ~ Catherine Merrill ~ Stephen Namara ~ Diane Olivier ~ Sharon Paster ~ Fernando Reyes ~ Alex Rosmarin ~ Randall Sexton (deceased) ~ May Shei ~ Sandra Speidel ~ Peter Steinhart ~ Charles H. Stinson
This is not to say that artists like Kirshenbaum, Merrill and others shun technology. It’s just that they can see where important skills are being lost or under-utilized. “I use digital technology to help in my art,” said Kirshenbaum. “But I can see were that the basic foundations of art making is are not being taught as much in art schools.” “I consider technology a tool, said Kirshenbaum, but an artist must have learn the basic skills; sketching-drawing, painting, sculpting and so forth.”
In putting together the exhibit, Pakdel, Kirshenbaum and Merrill wanted the works featured to be extensive, diverse and inclusive of as many of the top Bay Area figurative artists as possible, providing each artist with a mini-show within the show. “This type of art takes work, said Merrill, while the hands and the brain are integrated, there’s an intrinsic connection that goes beyond thoughts in the head.” “The human body, said Merrill, and the entire physical world is so alive it thinks on its own apart from what we think and get stuck on just in our heads.”
COVID-19 made a considerable impact as Merrill noted. “The pandemic isolated us from one another and distanced us from the galleries.” “Yet ironically the isolation of the pandemic pushed some artists to do some of their best work.”
The exhibit hopes to express not only the talent of the participants but also the joy at being able to gather and experience art together as a community.
The participating artists are: Joseph Abbati ~ Douglas Andelin ~ Madelyn Covey ~ Jane Fisher ~ Mary Graham ~ Isidoro ~ Susan R. Kirshenbaum ~ Catherine Merrill ~ Stephen Namara ~ Diane Olivier ~ Sharon Paster ~ Fernando Reyes ~ Alex Rosmarin ~ Randall Sexton (deceased) ~ May Shei ~ Sandra Speidel ~ Peter Steinhart ~ Charles H. Stinson
Co-creators: Catherine Merrill & Susan Kirshenbaum