Join our mailing list!Emotion, Time and Eros in the work of Damon Lehrer and Rick Berry
Review by Grace Dan Mazur in today’s The Arts Fuse : Culture of New England
Comparing Rick Berry’s expressionist paintings with Damon Lehrer’s exquisitely rendered, classical, and contemplative work made me wonder about the expressionist style in general. By this I mean that artistic terrain where the passions, vehemence, or ferocity of the artist so colors the work as to form a powerful but distorting more…
This show brilliantly contrasts two artists, Damon Lehrer and Rick Berry, and the wildly different ways they approach figurative painting.
(For the questions that the artists have for each other see Damon Lehrer’s interview of Rick Berry.)
It Figures. At the William Scott Gallery, 450 Harrison Avenue, #65, Boston, MA. Until September 30
I find his interpretation rather strange, as I would never have thought that a more academic style gives the viewer more freedom of interpretation. It’s true that your filter is stronger, Rick, but I really think your pictures are open to various interpretations. I think an expressionist painter shows us what he feels, more than what he thinks. The storytelling aspect seems more present in a more academic style. I might be wrong, but I don’t think your pictures only have one possible interpretation, that is the one you intended. In fact, I rarely try to interpret them, to “understand what you meant”; I perceive them as raw pieces of feeling.
Arnaud, I found many surprises in her review as well. Always interesting to see what others perceive in the work and how custom a response it is. Obviously, as soon as anyone else comes up with an interpretation at variance with what others see in the same piece, you’ve blown the train off the “rails.” So, whether or not she felt hemmed in by the overt force of my marks doesn’t really describe the journey for others or define the painting’s only function.
Still, I very much liked and appreciated the review. I don’t doubt that the work did what it did for her …and that it did so powerfully enough. She risked thoughts out loud and that always garners some respect from me. Further, she made me consider ways of seeing these paintings that hadn’t occurred to me. I don’t think my intents particularly match her percepts but then again I’m often surprised in what I see in a piece, sometimes even years later.
I’m also glad for her strong vote on Lehrer and I showing together and that it produces some wonderful synergies of thought. I’m quite pleased and intrigued by her involvement with the works.
I understand. It’s still a good review and she didn’t miss the point of a joint show involving two artists with contrasting approaches. And I guess her interpretation of some of your pictures is quite valid, since nobody is in the artist’s head (not even the artist, sometimes!). I even see the logic behind the hypothesis that expressionnism leaves less leeway to the audience because the artist’s filter is so strong, but to me, your approach leaves a lot of room for different interpretations. If you launched an “Interpret this painting” contest, you’d probably get interesting results.