Dan McCarthy
18 Apr - 13 Jun 2009
DAN MCCARTHY
Annet Gelink Gallery proudly presents the second solo exhibition of American artist Dan McCarthy in the Netherlands.Dan McCarthy (1962, Honolulu) created a furor with solo exhibitions in amongst others New York, Paris, Madrid andBerlin. His work is, amongst others, in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Musee d'ArtModerne in Paris. After his Dutch debut in 2006 he is now displaying his latest paintings and drawings.
Dan McCarthy’s paintings fascinate in their seeming. However, the apparent simple, intuitive paintings have beenpainted in a careful manner. By applying the oil paint in very thin layers to the canvas, one after the other, he iscreating almost water colour-style paintings that strike as sketchy. Again the artist is showing his interest in thehuman body. The depicted figures - for the greater part naked – seem to be in a parallel universe. Stripped of abackground that only distracts, the figures are crawling, squatting or staring into the surrounding emptiness. Withoccasionally an attribute such as a fish, a bird or diving goggles the paintings are referring to space and freedom.
In his paintings Dan McCarthy is not only referring to the human body but he is also using man as his subject.Regarding this, there’s an important part for the backgrounds. Dan McCarthy places his figures either in front of awhite background, which allows as much space as possible for the psychological aspects, or in front of woven nets,that refer to barricade and even to setting traps. By painting his figures with a blue skin and red eyes and liberatingthem from decorum and frame he is trying to detach the viewer from his indoctrinated observation. By not makingany concessions to rendering ‘reality’ Dan McCarthy sheds a new light on the classical theme of figure study. ‘I wantedto create timeless portraits more of how I feel rather than what I see and more of what could be rather than what is’,says the artist.
Annet Gelink Gallery proudly presents the second solo exhibition of American artist Dan McCarthy in the Netherlands.Dan McCarthy (1962, Honolulu) created a furor with solo exhibitions in amongst others New York, Paris, Madrid andBerlin. His work is, amongst others, in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Musee d'ArtModerne in Paris. After his Dutch debut in 2006 he is now displaying his latest paintings and drawings.
Dan McCarthy’s paintings fascinate in their seeming. However, the apparent simple, intuitive paintings have beenpainted in a careful manner. By applying the oil paint in very thin layers to the canvas, one after the other, he iscreating almost water colour-style paintings that strike as sketchy. Again the artist is showing his interest in thehuman body. The depicted figures - for the greater part naked – seem to be in a parallel universe. Stripped of abackground that only distracts, the figures are crawling, squatting or staring into the surrounding emptiness. Withoccasionally an attribute such as a fish, a bird or diving goggles the paintings are referring to space and freedom.
In his paintings Dan McCarthy is not only referring to the human body but he is also using man as his subject.Regarding this, there’s an important part for the backgrounds. Dan McCarthy places his figures either in front of awhite background, which allows as much space as possible for the psychological aspects, or in front of woven nets,that refer to barricade and even to setting traps. By painting his figures with a blue skin and red eyes and liberatingthem from decorum and frame he is trying to detach the viewer from his indoctrinated observation. By not makingany concessions to rendering ‘reality’ Dan McCarthy sheds a new light on the classical theme of figure study. ‘I wantedto create timeless portraits more of how I feel rather than what I see and more of what could be rather than what is’,says the artist.