David Schorr
dal 27/4/2006 al 2/6/2006
Segnalato da
27/4/2006
David Schorr
Mary Ryan Gallery, New York
The Imaginary Life of Ordinary Things: The Dish Ran Away with the Spoon. The subjects in these new paintings and works on paper are ordinary household objects that take on a life of their own personified into actors that move, dance, and float across a theatrical stage.
The Imaginary Life of Ordinary Things: The Dish Ran Away with the Spoon
The subjects in these new paintings and works on paper are ordinary household objects such as dishes,
teacups, shakers, and handkerchiefs, that take on a life of their own—personified into actors that move,
dance, and float across a theatrical stage. The exhibition was first shown at the Davison Art Center,
Wesleyan University in Middleton, CT earlier this year. A fully illustrated color catalogue with an essay by
Stephen Greenblatt, author of Will of the World, accompanies this exhibition.
David Schorr has always been interested in theatre and opera as well as the human figure and
cloth. Past shows have been inspired by the
Commedia dell’Arte and his last exhibition at
Mary Ryan Gallery featured the humble Indian
Khadi cloth as muse. Cloth, the human figure
and literary references abound in these new
works as well. Using gouache, gesso and silver
point, these paintings and drawings depict
objects of the everyday with vitality, luminosity,
and humor. This exhibition arose from Schorr’s
wonderment: what if these ordinary objects
become subjects of their own drama? “Do they
dream of romance or flying or running away, or
do they in fact, like servants when the master is
away, play?"
The objects appear in pairs or groups in dream-like settings. In Ohre and Crulean I (siblings), two Bengali
handkerchiefs seem to be on the verge of a duel. The fabrics are crunched up like a coil of spring, ready to
explode. In Three Sisters, white and blue handkerchiefs are lined up along the left corner, ready to march
across the sheet of paper, the stage for his drama. Other characters are introduced such as a teacup, a box
of matches, a can of Colman’s mustard, a packet of Gauloises, a salt shaker, as well as blocks; all play impor-
tant parts in Schorr’s fantastic realms.
David Schorr was born in Chicago in 1947. He received a BA from Brown, where he also studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, and a BFA
and MFA from Yale in 1971. Since 1971 he has been a Professor of Art at Wesleyan University, in Middletown, Connecticut, while living and working
in New York City. He was a Fulbright Scholar in Rome in 1975-76 and in India in 1998-99. Schor r continues to draw portraits of authors for the New
Republic , amounting to over 250 to date. His drawings have also been published in many other publications and on dust jackets of many books. He
has done a number of murals in both public and private places. Both the Metropolitan Opera and the L’Opera de Montreal have commissioned him
to design posters. He has had one man shows in Milan, Rome , Naples, Par is, Copenhagen, Athens, Toronto,
Montreal, Chicago, New York, Mumba, Ahmedabad and New Delhi. Schorr’s work is included in the follow-
ing selected collections: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Librar y of Congress, Washington, D.C .; Fogg
Museum of Art, Cambridge , MA; National Gallery, Washington, D.C .; Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, 212 379 0669 tel
OH.;New York Public Library,NY; Davison Art Center, CT.; Museum of Modern Ar t, NY, Yale University Art Gallery, CT. This is David Schorr’s sixth solo exhibition at the Mary Ryan Gallery.
Mary Ryan Gallery
24 West 57th Street New York, NY 10019