I don’t know if I’m judgmental or not, but picking these five works was a snap. From the vast collection of the Foundation’s works I came up with five that are photogenic, even the ones that are representational drawings display an overall photo-quality.
I didn’t choose them because they are finely rendered or shot, I chose them because they are perversely beautiful, even in the Tanning that is the epitome of perversity. That is, a hairy monkey’s-head peering up at the male crossbars of a bicycle – fill in the rest for yourself.
I could go on and on about the beauty of Laurie Simmons’ work, those sexy legs emerging from a red rose right to the death in Lisa Ruyter’s cemetery. The tree knows.
The “Helping Out” in Annette Lemieux’s could easily have been Crime Doesn’t Pay or Crime Pays or Sleeping With The Enemy – but good enough as she intended. It’s so easy to change an artist’s work to be one’s own configuration.
Judy Pfaff’s bugs and crabs and teeming microbes go hand in hand with the cemetery and the rose. To say nothing of meshing with Tanning and Lemieux.
Dig deep enough, they say, and the opposite arises. So it is here with the five works, all kinds of meanings and thoughts come to the fore. Deep down I’d put any of them on a wall and let it all hang out. They’re fantastic.
That’s one way of looking at it.
Burt Barr is a visual and multimedia artist based in New York City. He was a recipient of an FCA grant in 1996 and has donated work in support of the foundation's programs. View available work by Burt Barr here.
All works are for sale and benefit the Foundation's programs of grants to artists. Click thumbnails for a larger image. To purchase a work, or for more information, please email info@contemporary-arts.org.
Annette Lemieux, Helping Out, 1995 Laurie Simmons, Sitting Rose, 2008
$500 Sold
Lisa Ruyter, Untitled, 2000 Judy Pfaff, Untitled, 1993
$700 $9,000
Dorothea Tanning, Message 7, 1989
$20,000
To next artist: Adam McEwen
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