John Gibson: Small Works and Others

John Gibson Small Paintings and Others

I was fortunate enough to meet John Gibson in 1999 and have worked with his paintings since then. As a celebration of our 25 year relationship, David and I have put together this wonderful exhibition of small works, which are some of my personal favorites; small in stature but powerful in presence. Like all painting, his work about reality and illusion. I see them differently every time I look at them.

Lily Downing and David Yudain, 2024

I’ve been making paintings of spheres for almost 40 years. Historically speaking, these paintings have two major artistic influences. On the one hand they owe a great deal to European still life painting of the (mostly) 17th century. The use of light and dark to create volume, the use of cast shadows to create space and the use of decoration to introduce color are just some of the devices well known to those who have spent time with Baroque still life painting from Spain or the Netherlands. Unlike traditional still life painting however, my own work is extremely spare and lacks any anecdotal information. There is no time of day, for example, nor is there a discernible scale to these objects, or any plausible narrative that could explain their arrangement. In this respect these paintings are influenced by a second, very different art movement; the “minimalist” work of the 1970’s and 1980’s. By “minimalist” I mean art from that era that prioritized material and was reductive in technique and style. I love the work of George Rickey and Agnes Martin for example. I’m most happy with simple and essential forms.

Seen from a “minimalist” point of view, if my paintings are not of baseballs, or bowling balls, if they are not arranged in a window or at a store or on a kitchen table— if they don’t tell any particular story—what are they? Maybe, they’re just balls, and like my favorite works by these more contemporary artists, the experience is in the form and in the art object itself, the plywood, the paint, the wax. Essentially what I’m doing is making a minimalist work with the tools of much older European painting. I want them both.

Interestingly enough I find some similarities between these two very different eras of the history of art as both prioritize an exacting attention upon the object. Norman Bryson wrote a nice book about still life painting called “Looking at the Overlooked” which describes a practice of taking the time to see something carefully even if that thing is quotidian. My feeling is that looking (carefully) at the overlooked could apply equally to Zurbaran’s lemons as to Carl Andre’s bricks. In the case of still life painting, that careful attention is placed upon the painted object behind the picture plane, the bowl, the cup, the raspberry. In the case of the minimalist work of art our attention is drawn to the art object itself, the plywood box, the graphite line on canvas, the chunk of steel in the corner. In reference to this I should try and answer the question I’m most often asked; “Why just balls? Why not say, blocks or pyramids? Don’t you get bored?” The last one is easy because, yes, of course I get bored but I don’t think it’s because I only paint balls. Balls have been an effective subject for combining the two approaches to art described above. Because they are invented (I don’t work from observation, the balls can be arranged in any improbable way. They’re familiar and mysterious at the same time. They’re also an ongoing challenge, and in the best of times, an ongoing thrill to paint. There may come a time when I will say “I’m done” with the balls but for now, still, they’re still good. They’re enough. — John Gibson, 2023

April/Tangerine, 2024, oil on wood: 19 x 18 inches

April/Violet, 2024, oil on wood: 14 x 13 inches

April/Blue and Grey, 2024, oil on wood: 25 x 24 inches

April/Small Red, 2024, oil on wood: 12 x 12 inches

April/Black and Yellow, 2024, oil on wood: 16 x 16 inches

April/Pumpkin, 2024, oil on wood: 24 x 20 inches

April/White, 2024, oil on wood: 23 x 22 inches

April/Black and Orange, 2024, oil on wood: 17 x 16 inches

April/Umber, 2024, oil on wood: 16 x 15 inches

Untitled, 2024, oil on wood: 26 x 100 inches

Pioneer, 2024, oil on wood: 68 x 69 inches

Tailspin, 2000, oil on wood: 55 x 49 inches

Grant, 2007, watercolor on paper: 48 x 48 inches

John Gibson education

1980 B.F.A. Rhode Island School of Design

1982 M.F.A Yale University solo exhibitions

2023 Caldwell Snyder Gallery, Montecito, CA

2023 “New Paintings” – William Havu Gallery, Denver, CO

2021 “Recent Work” – William Havu Gallery, Denver, CO

2020 Caldwell Snyder Gallery, Montecito, CA

2020 “Jazz” – Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, Brattleboro, VT

2018 “Pieces” – Caldwell Snyder Gallery, St Helena, CA

2018 “New Works” – Gerald Peters Gallery, NY

2016 “The Space in Between” – Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco

2014 “Opposing Forces” – Brattleboro Museum of Art

2012 Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco

2011 “Black” – Gerald Peters Gallery, NY

2009 Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco

2009 “INTERPLAY” – Muse Gallery, Jackson Hole, Wyoming

2008 Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco

2008 “Fifty” – Gerald Peters Gallery, NY

2007 Muse Gallery, Jackson, Wyoming

2006 Gerald Peters Gallery (watercolors), New York

2006 Gerald Peters Gallery, Sante Fe

2005 Miller Block Gallery, Boston

2004 Hampshire College, Amherst

2004 Gerald Peters Gallery, New York

2003 Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe

2002 Gerald Peters Gallery, New York

2001 Miller Block Gallery, Boston

2001 Hodges Taylor Gallery, Charlotte NC

2001 Wendy Evans Fine Art, New York

2000 Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe

1999 “Painting the Improbable” – FMCC, Johnstown, NY

1998 Wendy Evans Fine Art, New York

1997 Miller Block Gallery, Boston

1996 Fine Arts Center, University of MA, Amherst

1996 Rosen Gallery, Paris, France

1995 Perspective Fine Art, New York

1995 Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe

1994 Miller Block Gallery, Boston

1994 Perspective Fine Art, New York

1990 Allan Stone Gallery, New York

1989 Harcus Gallery, Boston

1988 Allan Stone Gallery, New York

1987 Harcus Gallery, Boston

group exhibitions

2021 “I have an idea” – 1969 Gallery, NYC

2009 “Extreme Possibilities” – curated by Karen Wilkin/ painting center, NY

2009 “Vermont Collects” – Brattleboro Museum and Art Center

2009 “Extreme Possibilities” – Painting Center, NY

2008 “Grey Matter” – Miller Block Gallery, Boston

2004 “Manly – 3” Gescheidle Gallery, Chicago, IL

2002 “Art of the 20th Century” – New York Armory, NY

2002 “The Color Red…” – Gerald Peters, Santa Fe

1999 “Reflections on Surfaces” – Anne Reed Gallery, Sun Valley, Idaho

1996 “Monoprints” – Miller Block Gallery, Boston

1996 “Printscape” – Miller Block Gallery, Boston

1997 “5 College Faculty Drawing Show” – UMASS, Amherst

1995 “New Prints” – Miller Block Gallery, Boston

1993 “Fresh Paint” – Miller Block Gallery, Boston

1991 “Beyond Realism” – Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, PA

1992 “Highlights from the Permanent Collection” – UMASS, Amherst

1990 “Talent” – Allan Stone Gallery, New York

1991 “37 Artists at Capitol Cities/ABC”

1989 “DeKooning, Kline and others” – Allan Stone, New York

1988 “Great Expectations” – Harcus Gallery, Boston

1987 “Estes and Others”,”Talent” – Allan Stone, New York

print and print projects

2010-2104 Several large scale woodcut projects printed in the studio

1989-2005 12 separate limited edition intaglio projects with the Wingate Studio, Hinsdale, New Hampshire

2005 Limited edition silkscreen print printed by Brand X in New York and distributed by Lincoln Center

2004 Four intaglio prints that accompany a limited edition of Haruki Murakami’s “Sleep” printed by Kat Ran Press

2002 Two limited edition lithographs with Land Fall Press

selected bibliography

John Gibson: The Space In Between, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, 2023

Karen Wilkin, “Gallery Review”, Art in America, October 2006

Grace Glueck, “Gallery Review”, The New York Times, January 27, 2006

Cate McQuaid, “A mix of The Sacred…”, Boston Globe, April 1, 2005

Craig Sullivan, “Artist Explores the Might of Spheres”, Journal North, March 2000

Lynn Cline, “Paint Balls”, The New Mexican, March 2000

Susanna Carlisle, “John Gibson Still life on a Grand Scale”, The Magazine, May 2000

Ken Johnson, “Galleries Uptown”, The New York Times, March 23, 1999

“Short List” (Review and Reproduction), The New Yorker Magazine, November 1998

Cate McQuaid, “Gibson puts Ball in our Court”, The Boston Globe, May 22, 1997

Karen Wilkin, “At the Galleries”, The Partisan Review, Winter 1996

Nancy Stapen, “John Gibson at Miller Block Gallery”, The Boston Globe, October 27, 1994

“Self Portrait”, The New Yorker Magazine, Febuary 14, 1994

Karen Wilkin, “At The Galleries”, The Partisan Review, spring 1994

Elizabeth Gittings, “John Gibson at Harcus Gallery”, Art New England, January, 1989

Christine Temin, “Gibson Paints the Familiar, Darkly”, The Boston Globe, January 19, 1989

Christine Temin, “Fad Free Paintings”, The Boston Globe, April 30, 1987 selected public collections

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Museum at the Rhode Island School of Design

Ackland Museum Chapel Hill, NC

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton MA corporate collections

Fidelity Investments

Mass Mutual

Brown and Wood-NY

Hallmark Corp.

Sherman and Sterling, NY

Wellington Mgmt

BankNorth work experience

Instructor, Drawing and Painting, Smith College, Northampton, MA 1996-2017

Visiting Instructor, Painting, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI 1992-98

Visiting Instructor, Intaglio, Amherst College 1989-91

Instructor, Painting, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA