Sep
14
Discover Original Art
9/14/2009 11:34 AM
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“Spirit of Place, Contemporary Landscape Painting & The American Tradition,”
by John Arthur, Bulfinch Press, Little Brown & Co., New York, 1989.
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Vincent Arcilesi
Grand Canyon, 1975
Oil on canvas, 48 x 60 inches
Collection of Philip Desind, Silver Spring, Maryland
Courtesy of Capricorn Galleries, Bethesda, Maryland
Vincent Arcilesi is perhaps best known for his monumental, multifigured studio compositions, portraits, and unblinking depictions of erotic acts, but he has been occupied with landscape painting for more than two decades. Occasionally some of the paintings are reworked in the studio, but Arcilesi is primarily a plein-air painter, and his best landscapes are charged with the authenticity and emotional impact of direct reporting, qualities recalling the grand Swiss views by Ferdinand Hodler.
Grand Canyon was painted entirely on location for the Bicentennial exhibition America 1976 over a period of almost a month. After the drawing was established, Arcilesi worked four to five hours daily, refining the structure on cloudy days, and concentrating on the rich colors and shadows during the periods of bright sunlight. While the work appears to represent a moment in time, it is in fact worked up in sections, in periods from early to late light. Ultimately, the painting acquires a heightened intensity from this compression of the artist’s prolonged investigation.
“Spirit of Place, Contemporary Landscape Painting & The American Tradition,”
by John Arthur, Bulfinch Press, Little Brown & Co., New York, 1989.