Ben Woolfitt Blue Passage
DAVID RICHARD GALLERY
ISBN: 978-1-955260-48-0 Front Cover: Judy Chicago, Signing the Dinner Party, 2009, Lithograph on paper, 24 x 24”
Framed size: 27” x 27”
Ben Woolfitt Blue Passage November 29, 2023 - January 30, 2024 Published by: David Richard Gallery, LLC, 526 West 26th Street, Suite 9E, New York, NY 10001 www.DavidRichardGallery.com 212-882-1705 | 505-983-9555 DavidRichardGalleries1 DavidRichardGallery Gallery Staff: David Eichholtz and Richard Barger, Managers All rights reserved by David Richard Gallery, LLC. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced in whole or part in digital or printed form of any kind whatsoever without the express written permission of David Richard Gallery, LLC. Catalogue: © 2023 David Richard Gallery, LLC, New York, NY Artworks: Copyright © Ben Woolfitt Catalogue Design: David Eichholtz and Richard Barger, David Richard Gallery, LLC, New York, NY Images by Yao Zu Lu
DAVID RICHARD GALLERY
Ben Woolfitt Blue Passage
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Ben Woolfitt Blue Passage David Richard Gallery is pleased to present Blue Passage, a solo exhibition and debut of new paintings and drawings by artist Ben Woolfitt in his first presentation with the gallery. Always exploring non-objective abstraction and inspired by Color Field painting, Woolfitt’s process-driven paintings begin and end with surface and color. These newest works start with waves and swaths of gesso that provide the first step in his process. Applying pigment in layers with each mark and gesture in response to the prior additions, the colors and imagery organically evolve filling the canvas and running off the edges in every direction. The variety of media, including acrylic paint, dry pigment, metallic leaf, and graphite and the canvas filling, all over painting approach makes the work dynamic, full of intrigue with the color and imagery extending beyond the canvas edges. Depending upon the range of palettes, from black and white, to blue, black and white, or black and gold, with occasional additions of green or red, each painting having sprays of colors in the grounds or moving toward the surface with clusters of marks evokes astral skies, the cosmos, or nautical vegetation and creatures deep in the sea. The presentation will also include a selection of new drawings taken from Woolfitt’s daily practice in his New York, East Village studio. Each drawing is a unique creation, not a prelude to nor a study for any particular painting. Aesthetically, very much related to the paintings, each rendering is created using the technique of ‘frottage’ that captures the impressions of screens, wire mesh, or crumpled materials behind the drawing paper and provides the surface texture and imagery after rubbing the surfaces with graphite, dry pigment, and silver leaf. However, while the media may be common between the canvas versus paper supports, the imagery develops on the paper with a vision or intentionality in mind that explores fissures and eruptions, horizon lines, repetition of forms, and large passages of color. Woolfitt’s drawings and numerous drawing books that record decades of his visual explorations were prominently featured in his recent solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of Toronto from July 2021 through March 2022. A new book with an essay by Donald Kuspit will follow the exhibition. Kuspit has written two other books extensively investigating and discussing Woolfitt’s studio practice spanning five decades of his paintings and drawings. David Eichholtz November 2023
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Ben Woolfitt Power of Light, 2023 Acrylic on canvas 60 x 72”
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Ben Woolfitt Golden Night, 2019 Acrylic on canvas 60 x 72”
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Ben Woolfitt Edge of Gold, 2023 Acrylic on canvas 60 x 72”
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Ben Woolfitt Blue Passage, 2023 Acrylic on canvas 60 x 72”
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Ben Woolfitt Magic, 2023 Acrylic on canvas 60 x 72”
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Ben Woolfitt Blue Orb, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 42 x 108”
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Ben Woolfitt Out of Darkness, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 60 x 72”
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Ben Woolfitt Blue Mirage Series III, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 72 x 60”
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Ben Woolfitt a morning that..., October 11, 2023 Silver leaf, oil pastel and graphite on paper 14 x 22”
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Ben Woolfitt this day will come..., April 1, 2023 Silver leaf, oil pastel and graphite on paper 14 x 22”
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Ben Woolfitt on a theme of..., August 4, 2023 Silver leaf, oil pastel pigment and graphite on paper 14 x 22”
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Ben Woolfitt at an even tempo, July 20, 2023 Silver leaf, oil pastel, pigment and graphite on paper 14 x 22”
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Ben Woolfitt first full day..., September 21, 2023 Silver leaf, oil pastel and graphite on paper 14 x 22”
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Ben Woolfitt the day of..., March 17, 2022 Silver leaf, oil pastel and graphite on paper 14 x 22”
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Ben Woolfitt early one morning, July 3, 2023 Silver leaf, oil pastel and graphite on paper 14 x 22”
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Ben Woolfitt our time has been..., October 25, 2022 Silver leaf, oil pastel and graphite on paper 14 x 22”
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About Ben Woolfitt: Ben Woolfitt, Modernist and Post-Modernist Painter born in Saskatchewan, Canada, 1946. Since 1965 Woolfitt has lived in Toronto when he enrolled at Founders College, York University. In 1972 founded Woolfitt’s School of Contemporary Painting, where he taught until 1979. He established Woolfitt’s Fine Art Supplies in 1978, an international distributor of artist materials which he managed until it was sold in 2014. The modern.toronto , a museum dedicated to the exhibition of non-objective painting was founded by Woolfitt in 2017. Since the 1960’s Woolfitt was influenced by Color Field painting, especially the works of Mark Rothko, Morris Louis, Hans Hofmann and Jules Olitski and later by Antonio Tapies. Woolfitt has had 25 solo exhibitions and 15 group exhibitions in Canada, Japan, Thailand and the USA. Most recently at major solo exhibition of abstract drawings at the Art Gallery of Ontario. His paintings are in numerous museums and corporate and private collections internationally, including Canadian collections at The MacLaren Art Centre, Hart House at the University of Toronto, The Remai Modern and the Robert McLaughlin Gallery. Ben Woolfitt is now represented by the David Richard Galleries in Chelsea, NYC.
DAVID RICHARD GALLERY