Please enjoy the preview below. Check back on June 7th for the complete exhibition.
Rufino del Carmen Arellanes TAMAYO
By the mid twentieth century the native Zapotec artist Rufino del Carmen Arellanes Tamayo, was properly acknowledged as one of Mexico's leading artists.
During his studies at Escuela National de Artes Plastics he absorbed Mexican versions of Cubism, Impressionism and Fauvism. The artist's love of pre-Columbian ceramics stemmed from his work with Jose Vasconcelos and Tamayo's chairing the Department of Ethnographic Drawings (1921-1926). But he moved to New York City in 1926, largely as a rejection of the revolutionary politics of the muralists.
After completing his studies and teaching in Mexico City he lived in New York (1936-1950), and Paris (1957-1964) where he was influenced by Picasso, Matisse, Ingres and other European artists. He then returned to Mexico to live and work (1964-1991).
Although a skilled painter and sometime sculptor, Tamayo's legacy rests with his more than six decades of printmaking including woodcuts, lithographs, etchings and mixografia prints. The strong appreciation that Tamayo's work received outside of Mexico resulted in a new respect for it in Mexico.
In 1981 the artist's collection of European masters formed the foundation of a museum named for him in Mexico City and his gift of his pre-Columbian collection to the city of Oaxaca inspired Francisco Toledo and others to make that city an important art and printmaking center.
Michael Spafford (b. 1935) has been a major force in the Northwest art community as a painter and printmaker since the 1960’s. Influenced by his studies in art history at Harvard University, (particularly of the epics), and later by the muralists while he lived in Mexico, his emphasis has been on Greco-Roman mythology as an avenue of expression about contemporary culture. He continually finds new inspiration and perspectives for fresh imagery, resulting in extended series for The Labors of Hercules, the Iliad, the Odyssey, and other mythologies surrounding Europa, and Romulus and Remus. Visually the figures are compressed into two dimensions, with no modeling, turning them into flat forms and patterns, stylized to the point of abstraction.
Michael Spafford’s work will be the subject of three different and concurrent gallery exhibitions in Seattle. Davidson Galleries is proud to be part of the Epic Works project, along with Greg Kucera Gallery and Woodside/Braseth Gallery. Each will focus on different mythologies or mediums. Davidson Galleries will present Spafford’s large scale original prints.
Exhibition Opening: April 5th, 6-8 PM - Artist will be in attendance from 6-6:45 PM during the opening.
Artist walk through: Saturday, April 21st, 2-3 PM.
ONLINE EXHIBITIONS are short term, changing exhibitions of available inventory that are not currently displayed on the gallery walls. Usual duration, two weeks.
Alongside Rembrandt and Dürer, Goya stands as one of greatest historical printmakers known today. His subjects range from Biblical depictions, to the bloody, but much loved sport of bull fighting. He is best known, however, for his satirical and social commentary in biting series such as The Disasters of War and Caprices. Ever a keen observer of his own time, Goya nonetheless succeeded in creating imagery of the human condition that speaks to generations of viewers even to this day.
Los Caprichos are the earliest of Goya's large series of engravings and invite imaginative interpretations from viewers even today. Attemps have been made to discover the specific meanings of the compositions since their first publication in 1799. Even though a disclaimer released at this same time claimed no specific indivduals were alluded to, the generally accepted view has been that they were inf act closely connected with particular people and institutions of the day and were bold, satirical caricatures directed against the Church, the Inquisition, the Government, and the Royal Family.
View more work by Goya HERE.
