Jon Schueler: Catalog


Activities & Experiments Catalog Chronology Itinerary Response Weather Resources Works on Display Schueler: About the Sky Main Page Jon Schueler Site SBC Art Gallery Main Site	Jon Schueler: About the Sky Catalog 1 \| 2 \| 3 \| 4 \| 5 \| 6 \| 7 \| 8 \| 9 \| 10 In April 1959, a few months after Schueler's return to the United States, Castelli gave him a one-person show of the paintings done in Paris, but to Schueler's great disappointment, none of the Scottish ones were included. Despite good sales of the pictures in the exhibition, Castelli's interest was turning to newer developments on the art scene, work that would soon become known as "Pop." The changes occurring in the art world during the early 1960s depressed Schueler. Such artists as Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns had made their entrance on the scene with subversive works that offended his romantic and ethical sensibilities. Moreover, as Schueler recalled, "In the very early sixties, a number of (younger) artists did an abrupt turnabout and said, Yes, Abstract Expressionism is dead and I was really on the wrong track all along." Such denials struck him more forcefully, perhaps, than the appearance of new trends. He and Castelli agreed to end their association. Increasingly, Schueler was feeling the burden of the competitive art world. In 1960, Hirschl and Adler showed both the Scottish and French paintings, but with a marked preference for the latter that antagonized Schueler, because he was aware of his own feelings about them: Polarities. I was fighting my own battles between the paintings that had been done in Mallaig and those that had been painted in Clamart and Arcueil. At one end of the scale are paintings which have a rawness to them and seem to reflect an immediate passion. There is a strength of anger. The invention comes because of an impassioned immediacy. At the other end of the scale is the endless softness of the sky. The mist and the cloud and the light absorb the raw edge. Some force is covered. It disappears behind layers of paint, or becomes the pulse--only suggested and sensitively felt in a sky and sea and paint so gentle that it might disappear altogether. Although he was to remain based in New York for the next several years, and indeed still considered himself a New York painter, Schueler dreamed of returning to Scotland. He published "A Letter about the Sky," in the Spring 1960 issue of It is, an important journal published by the sculptor Philip Pavia, devoted to art and artists's statements. ...And when I think of the sky, I think of the Scottish sky over Mallaig.... I found in its convulsive movement and change and drama such a concentration of activity that it became all skies and even the idea of all nature to me.... Time was there and motion was there-lands forming, seas disappearing, worlds fragmenting, colors emerging or giving birth to burning shapes, mountain snows showing emerald green; or paused solid still when the gales stopped suddenly and the skies were clear again after long days of howling sound and rain or snow beating horizontal from the sky.... I found every passion in the sky.... Humanity was there.... The sky was not a substitute for man. It was an enlargement of man.... Despite the preference that the dealers had shown for the paintings done in France over those done in Scotland, Schueler was not ready to move away from strong colors and expressive brushwork. In Winter and Beyond, 1960 (cat #11), and Night: Leete's Island, 1961, he used the point of view and pictorial structure of the Scottish paintings, but now with a more open sense of space and vigorous brushstroke. The paint is somewhat dense, but applied in a calligraphic manner. The summer of 1960 was a time of social activity with artist friends in the Hamptons. Schueler was ambivalent: "I had many mixed feelings.... It's an exciting place to be, in a way-if one is not working.... There is a kind of madness going on amongst the artists-as though they're searching for something...." And of course Schueler himself was searching for something, both in his private and professional life. From 1960 to 1962 he taught at the Yale University School of Art, New Haven. Throughout the sixties, teaching would provide the income necessary to sustain his painting. Thoughts of Scotland persisted, but in the meantime the theme of Woman was to occupy his writing and painting. "Now I realize that Woman is in New York, and I can paint about that with as much passion as I painted about the sky in Scotland. I'll bring the two together...." He moved into a studio on Broadway at Twentieth Street, New York, in October 1962, where he remained for the next five years. Seen within the context of Abstract Expressionism, Schueler's turn to figuration was a bold one. As Seitz observed, conditions "...made the reconciliation of the human image to meaningful pictorial form increasingly difficult, and often impossible." The questions arise: "Is (the artist) moving forward or backward?" Is his work advancing or retreating? De Kooning had faced the same challenge in the previous decade and prevailed. It was absolutely characteristic of Schueler to insist upon a similar confrontation with established opinion, and so he pursued his theme of Woman in the Sky.
Catalog Main Page \| 1 \| 2 \| 3 \| 4 \| 5 \| 6 \| 7 \| 8 \| 9 \| 10
Activities & Experiments \| Catalog \| Chronology \| Itinerary \| Response \| Weather Resources \| Works on Display Schueler: About the Sky Main Page \| Jon Schueler Site \| SBC Art Gallery Main Site
http://www.artgallery.sbc.edu/exhibits/99_00/schueler/catalog5.html This page was created and is maintained by Jaime Henna, 2002. Direct questions or comments to Professor Rebecca Massie Lane, Director of the College Galleries and the Arts Management Program. Last updated on February 6, 2000.


Activities & Experiments Catalog Chronology Itinerary Response Weather Resources Works on Display Schueler: About the Sky Main Page Jon Schueler Site SBC Art Gallery Main Site	Jon Schueler: About the Sky Catalog 1 \| 2 \| 3 \| 4 \| 5 \| 6 \| 7 \| 8 \| 9 \| 10 In April 1959, a few months after Schueler's return to the United States, Castelli gave him a one-person show of the paintings done in Paris, but to Schueler's great disappointment, none of the Scottish ones were included. Despite good sales of the pictures in the exhibition, Castelli's interest was turning to newer developments on the art scene, work that would soon become known as "Pop." The changes occurring in the art world during the early 1960s depressed Schueler. Such artists as Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns had made their entrance on the scene with subversive works that offended his romantic and ethical sensibilities. Moreover, as Schueler recalled, "In the very early sixties, a number of (younger) artists did an abrupt turnabout and said, Yes, Abstract Expressionism is dead and I was really on the wrong track all along." Such denials struck him more forcefully, perhaps, than the appearance of new trends. He and Castelli agreed to end their association. Increasingly, Schueler was feeling the burden of the competitive art world. In 1960, Hirschl and Adler showed both the Scottish and French paintings, but with a marked preference for the latter that antagonized Schueler, because he was aware of his own feelings about them: Polarities. I was fighting my own battles between the paintings that had been done in Mallaig and those that had been painted in Clamart and Arcueil. At one end of the scale are paintings which have a rawness to them and seem to reflect an immediate passion. There is a strength of anger. The invention comes because of an impassioned immediacy. At the other end of the scale is the endless softness of the sky. The mist and the cloud and the light absorb the raw edge. Some force is covered. It disappears behind layers of paint, or becomes the pulse--only suggested and sensitively felt in a sky and sea and paint so gentle that it might disappear altogether. Although he was to remain based in New York for the next several years, and indeed still considered himself a New York painter, Schueler dreamed of returning to Scotland. He published "A Letter about the Sky," in the Spring 1960 issue of It is, an important journal published by the sculptor Philip Pavia, devoted to art and artists's statements. ...And when I think of the sky, I think of the Scottish sky over Mallaig.... I found in its convulsive movement and change and drama such a concentration of activity that it became all skies and even the idea of all nature to me.... Time was there and motion was there-lands forming, seas disappearing, worlds fragmenting, colors emerging or giving birth to burning shapes, mountain snows showing emerald green; or paused solid still when the gales stopped suddenly and the skies were clear again after long days of howling sound and rain or snow beating horizontal from the sky.... I found every passion in the sky.... Humanity was there.... The sky was not a substitute for man. It was an enlargement of man.... Despite the preference that the dealers had shown for the paintings done in France over those done in Scotland, Schueler was not ready to move away from strong colors and expressive brushwork. In Winter and Beyond, 1960 (cat #11), and Night: Leete's Island, 1961, he used the point of view and pictorial structure of the Scottish paintings, but now with a more open sense of space and vigorous brushstroke. The paint is somewhat dense, but applied in a calligraphic manner. The summer of 1960 was a time of social activity with artist friends in the Hamptons. Schueler was ambivalent: "I had many mixed feelings.... It's an exciting place to be, in a way-if one is not working.... There is a kind of madness going on amongst the artists-as though they're searching for something...." And of course Schueler himself was searching for something, both in his private and professional life. From 1960 to 1962 he taught at the Yale University School of Art, New Haven. Throughout the sixties, teaching would provide the income necessary to sustain his painting. Thoughts of Scotland persisted, but in the meantime the theme of Woman was to occupy his writing and painting. "Now I realize that Woman is in New York, and I can paint about that with as much passion as I painted about the sky in Scotland. I'll bring the two together...." He moved into a studio on Broadway at Twentieth Street, New York, in October 1962, where he remained for the next five years. Seen within the context of Abstract Expressionism, Schueler's turn to figuration was a bold one. As Seitz observed, conditions "...made the reconciliation of the human image to meaningful pictorial form increasingly difficult, and often impossible." The questions arise: "Is (the artist) moving forward or backward?" Is his work advancing or retreating? De Kooning had faced the same challenge in the previous decade and prevailed. It was absolutely characteristic of Schueler to insist upon a similar confrontation with established opinion, and so he pursued his theme of Woman in the Sky.
Catalog Main Page \| 1 \| 2 \| 3 \| 4 \| 5 \| 6 \| 7 \| 8 \| 9 \| 10
Activities & Experiments \| Catalog \| Chronology \| Itinerary \| Response \| Weather Resources \| Works on Display Schueler: About the Sky Main Page \| Jon Schueler Site \| SBC Art Gallery Main Site
http://www.artgallery.sbc.edu/exhibits/99_00/schueler/catalog5.html This page was created and is maintained by Jaime Henna, 2002. Direct questions or comments to Professor Rebecca Massie Lane, Director of the College Galleries and the Arts Management Program. Last updated on February 6, 2000.