Brett Bigbee
Abby, 2005-2010, oil on linen, 70 1/32 x 53 7/8 inches
Brett Bigbee
Recent Work
October 20 – December 17, 2011
The gallery will present an overview of Brett Bigbee’s (b. 1954) recent paintings and drawings completed during the past ten years. Included will be three large-scale figurative oil paintings, small-scale still-life paintings and related drawings, both developmental and fully realized. His most recent painting, Abby (2005 – 2010), depicts a pre-teen girl clad in a brightly-colored flowered swimsuit emerging from a landscape of dirt and leafy groundcover. The exhibition will include loans from private and museum collections and will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with text by John Yau.
Bigbee’s highly detailed and refined realism results in works of arresting psychological intensity and sensitivity that break free of the clichés and sentimentality too often associated with the genre. Yau writes: “Working on a painting, often for years, Bigbee always places his labor-intensive process at the service of the particularizing expression, at once direct and elusive, relaxed and introspective, open to the world and yet separate from it.” And speaking to the near metaphysical effect, Yau continues: “Stillness and change lie at the heart of the artist’s portraits: the aching desire to slow down time is spelled out in carefully effaced brushstrokes, which literally and figuratively caress each surface and trace each contour. Bigbee’s labor – an act of devotion – is essential to the meaning of his work.”
This exhibition marks the first New York showing of the Bigbee’s work since 2003.
Dark Earth, 2010-2011, oil on linen, 9 1/16 x 12/18
Apples and Cherries, 2004, oil on canvas, 11 11/16 x 12 5/16 inches
Three Apples, 1999-2003, oil on canvas, 11 3/4 x 13 5/16 inches
Still Life, 1999, oil on linen, 11 9/16 x 13/16 inches
Quince, 2000-2001, oil on canvas, 14 1/4 x 17 1/4 inches
Apples And Cherries, 2004, graphite on paper, 12 1/4 x 12 3/4 inches
James, 1999-2001, oil on canvas, 47 3/4 x 22 1/2 inches
Portrait of Ann, 2004-2008, oil on linen, 18 1/8 x 14 1/8 inches
Portrait of Ann, Third, 2007, graphite on paper, 9 7/16 x 7 7/16 inches
Portrait of Ann, Second, 2007, graphite on paper, 17 3/4 x 13 3/4 inches
Abby, 2005-2010, oil on linen, 70 1/32 x 53 7/8 inches
Abby, 2004, graphite on paper, 11 1/2 x 8 inches
Abby (Torso Study), 2007, graphite on paper, 25 x 19 inches
Joe and James, 2002-2004, oil on linen, 64 3/8 x 49 1/4 inches
Study for James, 2000, graphite on paper, 9 1/2 x 11 inches
Joe and James, 2001-2003, graphite on paper, 60 x 50 inches
