Ellen Phelan: Family
Romance
Ameringer & Yohe Fine
Art
20 W 57, 2nd floor
New York, NY 10019
212 445 0051
September 9 - October 9,
2004
By STEPHEN
MUELLER
Ellen Phelan E.Smoking
2004
watercolor and gouache on paper, 12.2 x 19 inches
Courtesy Ameringer Yohe Fine Art
Cover, October 15, 2004: Tommy in Headdress 2004
watercolor and gouache on paper, 24.8 x 36 inches
Ellen Phelan
has taken a great many chances in her current show of paintings and
watercolors at Ameringer & Yohe. First of all a she has chosen to
work from photographs. Secondly they are family photographs. This is
something that many inexperienced art students choose to do. They will
often bring in a picture of Aunt Gussie (or someone) and proceed to
make a perfectly awful painting attempting to copy the photo. As an
experienced teacher Phelan knows this, and as an even more experienced
painter ( thirty plus years) she has the finesse and temerity to "go
there" and come out none the worse for the endeavor.
This is only the
beginning of the chances she takes. The paintings literally involve
smoke and mirrors. However, her intent is not to conceal or deceive,
but to see more clearly things, which have been veiled by time. There
is smoke in that she uses the Italian renaissance device known as sfumatto
(smoke) enveloping the subject in a kind of haze of light and dark,
and even darker tones. This results in a "through a glass darkly"
sort of examination of memory and identity and perception. Artistically
the venture calls to mind Whistler, Corot and even Eakins. For this
viewer the results can be quite moving and always expertly executed.
Phelan's techniques
are her own and a mystery even to other painters. There is an elegant
surety about placement and color. Perhaps the most beautiful painting
here is a self-portrait, called Self-Portrait", showing the artist
taking her own picture in a mirror. This sounds corny (another risk)
but the painting is astonishing. The works are all beautifully scaled.
Whether or not Phelan wins the gamble, playing with narcissism and sentimentality
as she does, is debatable. I found the show masterful and all the more
so for taking the risks that she does.
