Marvin Bileck Estate
Emily Nelligan, 2 Oct 07 (2), 2007, charcoal on paper, 7 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches
Marvin Bileck: Figurative Etchings
Emily Nelligan: Recent Drawings
November 19, 2009 – January 23, 2010
The gallery is pleased to present two exhibitions: Marvin Bileck: Figurative Etchings and Illustrations and Emily Nelligan: Recent Drawings. Both shows open November 19th with a reception on Saturday, November 21st, from noon to 2 pm. This marks the gallery’s second joint exhibitions of these artists’ work.
The subjects of Bileck’s meticulous and finely detailed drawings and prints range from delicate linear depictions of complex tangled and layered landscapes to highly imaginative and whimsical children’s illustrations that are equally dense and delicate. Among the works included in the current show will be original drawings from his 1965 Rain Makes Applesauce (written by Alfred Kazin) and a suite of fanciful figurative etchings that evoke the finest tradition of Northern European graphic art.
By contrast, Emily Nelligan works only with unfixed charcoal, graphite and erasure on 7 by 10 inch sheets of thin cotton writing paper. In her work, she distills the observed landscape of a Maine island and its coast, rocks, trees, sea, light and mist into virtuosic, semi-abstract images of shadow and light. “Ms. Nelligan’s drawings are nocturnes in which light is more fugitive than shadow and a velvety darkness dominates every prospect (Hilton Kramer, 2005).” Included in this show are twenty drawings from the past four summers.
Bileck, who died in 2005, and Nelligan met in the 1940s when both were students at Cooper Union and married soon after. Since that time they divided their time between New York, Connecticut and Maine. For many summers the two artists worked together every day on Great Cranberry Island (Maine) in the morning and again at twilight.
Emily Nelligan, 6 Oct 08 (2), 2008, charcoal on paper, 7 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches
Emily Nelligan, 7 Oct 08, 2008, charcoal on paper, 7 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches
Emily Nelligan, 12 Oct 08 (1), 2008, charcoal on paper, 7 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches
Emily Nelligan, 17 Oct 08 (2), 2008, charcoal on paper, 7 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches
Emily Nelligan, 25 Sept 08, 2008, charcoal on paper, 7 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches
Emily Nelligan, 26 July 08, 2008, charcoal on paper, 7 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches
Emily Nelligan, 2 Oct 07 (2), 2007, charcoal on paper, 7 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches
Emily Nelligan, 4 Aug 07, 2007, charcoal on paper, 7 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches
Emily Nelligan, 4 Oct 07, 2007, charcoal on paper, 7 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches
Emily Nelligan, 26 Sept 07, 2007, charcoal on paper, 7 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches
Emily Nelligan, 29 Sept 07 (1), 2007, charcoal on paper, 7 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches
Emily Nelligan, 3 Aug 06, 2006, charcoal on paper, 7 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches
Emily Nelligan, 28 Sept 06, 2006, charcoal on paper, 7 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches
Emily Nelligan, 20 Sept 06, 2006, charcoal on paper, 7 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches
Emily Nelligan, 25 July 06 (2), 2006, charcoal on paper, 7 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches
Emily Nelligan, 2 Oct 05 (1), 2005, charcoal on paper, 7 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches
Emily Nelligan, 5 Aug 05, 2005, charcoal on paper, 7 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches
Emily Nelligan, 25 Sept 05, 2005, charcoal on paper, 7 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches
Emily Nelligan, 27 Sept 05, 2005, charcoal on paper, 7 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches
Marvin Bileck, Untitled (Houses), c. 1955-1965, scratchboard, 2 13/16 x 5 3/16 inches
Marvin Bileck, Untitled (Elephant), c. 1955-1965, scratchboard, 2 7/8 x 4 1/8 inches
Marvin Bileck, Untitled (Ice), c. 1955-1965, scratchboard, 4 3/8 x 3 inches
Marvin Bileck, Untitled (Moving Truck), c. 1955-1965, scratchboard, 2 13/16 x 2 9/16 inches
Marvin Bileck, Untitled (We Want Joe), c. 1955-1965, scratchboard, 3 1/16 x 2 3/8 inches
Marvin Bileck, I Wear My Shoe Inside Out and Rain Makes Applesauce, 1964, graphite and colored pencil on paper, 9 1/2 x 14 3/4 inches
Marvin Bileck, My House Goes Walking Everyday and Rain Makes Applesauce, 1964, graphite and colored pencil on paper, 9 1/2 x 14 5/8 inches
Marvin Bileck, Monkeys Mumble in a Jelly Bean Jungle and Rain Makes Applesauce, 1964, graphite on colored pencil on paper, 9 1/2 x 15 inches
Marvin Bileck, My Teddy Bear Sings Out loud at Night and Rain Makes Applesauce, 1964, graphite and colored pencil on paper, 9 1/4 x 14 1/2 inches
Marvin Bileck, Blind Girl, etching and engraving, 5 x 3 7/8 inches
Marvin Bileck, Angry Man, n.d., etching and engraving, 6 3/8 x 5 1/4 inches
Marvin Bileck, We Come Together, n.d., etching and engraving, 4 7/8 x 3 7/8 inches
Marvin Bileck, All the King's Men, n.d., etching and engraving, 6 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches
Marvin Bileck, I Have Only to Close My Eyes, etching and engraving, 5 x 4 inches
Marvin Bileck, Three Figures in a Long Space, n.d., etching and engraving, 3 3/8 x 7 7/8 inches
