DEAN DASS : ANIMALS AND CLOUDS

DEAN DASS Animals and Clouds September 10 –October 15

Animals and Clouds Gradually I have come to a position where drawing, painting, collage, various print media and even paper itself as an expressive medium are all necessary for the creation of a work. Papermaking, manuscript illumination, printmaking and bookbinding have been together for many centuries and to work even today in these related fields is easy and natural. The craft-heavy disciplines like these make it easy to have such a dialogue across time. I continue to work on various research projects often involving pictures that are very intimate in scale and are a kind of manuscript aesthetic in the tradition of the Alexander Romances, or the Shah Nameh manuscripts in the Islamic world. Often titles are used to suggest that the work is from a narrative that has been lost or is in fragments, but may in fact have never existed. Conversely, the particular image in question may belong to or once was part of a manuscript. I make books regularly that are something in between journals and more organized artist's books, and these collections are often the basis for later suites of images. I often work over the paper so much that the image comes to look like a fragment; I like the idea of part-objects very much. I like to utilize parataxis – a narrative structure characterized by discontinuity, breaks and aporia. In this way I would like to suggest something of the haunting incompleteness of human existence. It seems to me everything of any importance remains a mystery. It is not that I am interested in old things or esoteric knowledge, or mythic or archetypal structures per se, but more in the dizzying repetition of history, so pervasive as to become almost mythic. Look at the time into which we have been thrown.

These particular paintings and works on paper are excerpted from a larger project I have been working on since I completed a residency in southwest Ireland in 2011. I have been illustrating one of the stories collected by the Brothers Grimm, "Little Brother and Little Sister." I wish to update this story for our own time. A synopsis of my adaptation of the story is as follows:

These particular paintings and works on paper are excerpted from a larger project I have been working on since I completed a residency in southwest Ireland in 2011. I have been illustrating one of the stories collected by the Brothers Grimm, "Little Brother and Little Sister." I wish to update this story for our own time. A synopsis of my adaptation of the story is as follows: After the destruction of their homeland Little Brother and Little Sister ran into the forest. But after drinking from an enchanted stream Little Brother is turned into a fawn. Undismayed, Little Sister promised to continue to care for Little Brother, and the two set up housekeeping in a ruined stone cottage...At night, when the sister had said her prayers, and was tired, she would lay her head on the back of the fawn. That was her pillow, and she would fall into a sweet sleep. So they lived like this, all alone in a great forest.

Other salient events in the development of this work include a campout in Detroit with my students in the fall of 2014, and a seminar I taught with Natalie Jeremijenko in the spring of 2015, entitled Environmental Art Activism.

Animals are our oldest images; they are a primordial experience of otherness. The cloud, the animal and the bird here fulfill a variety of tropes. They appear ominous, threatening, falling; they function as Nature’s reproach to humankind. If they appear wounded, we too must be wounded. But clouds and birds also soar, protect us and envelop us.

We dream of animals and clouds.

Dean Dass 2016

Pale Spreading Cloud, 2016, 33x48 inches, gouache, acrylic, ink, pigments, paper mounted on panel..

Details next pages

Cloud Drawing, 2016, 13x18 inches, ink on paper prepared with gouache and acrylic.

Pale Blue Cloud, 2015, 31.5x47.75 inches, gouache, acrylic, ink, pigments, on paper mounted on panel

Pale Spreading Cloud on Blue Field, 2016, 31 x 47.5 inches, gouache, acrylic, ink, pigments, on paper mounted on panel.

Cloud Drawing, 2016, 13x18 inches, ink on paper prepared with gouache, acrylic and pigments.

Red Cloud Drawing, 2016, 11.5x19.5 inches, ink on prepared paper.

Cloud, Tent, Birds, 2015, 10x14 inches, ink and inkjet on prepared paper.

Small Pale Cloud, 2015, 15x19.5 inches, gouache, acrylic, pigments, on paper mounted on panel.

Camping in the Clouds, 2015, 10x24 inches, gouache, acrylic, pigments, ink, pencil, collage, paper mounted on panel.

Next page Detail

Pink Cloud Drawing B, 2016, , gouache, acrylic, pigments, on prepared paper.

Pink Cloud Drawing A, 2016, 12x18.5 inches, gouache, acrylic, pigments, on prepared paper.

Barracks, 2014, 12x16 inches, ink, collage on paper.

Death Kneeling and Beckoning, 2012, 6x10 inches, inkjet, excerpted page from The Lost Colony. Detail

Pale Yellow Cloud 32x50 inches 2016 gouache, acrylic, marble dust, kaolin, pigments, inks on paper on panel

LIST FOR FOLLOWING WORKS ON PAPER

Two Red Fawns, 2016, 8.5x10.5 inches, gouache, acrylic, marble dust, pigments, inks, on paper on panel.

White Cloud, 2016, 20x26 inches, gouache, acrylic, marble dust, on paper on panel.

Small Darkening Cloud, 2016, 12x14 inches, gouache, acrylic, marble dust, kaolin, pigments, inks on paper on panel.

Birds and Clouds in Great Conflict, 2016, 11 x15 inches, gouache, acrylic, collage, Armenian bole, gold leaf, inks, pencil, on paper. Detail.

Landscape after Meteor Impact, 2015, 13x18 inches, lithograph on prepared paper, manuscript pages.

Orange Clouds, 2015, 13x18 inches, lithograph on prepared paper, manuscript pages.

Little Brother and Little Sister, 2014, 13x18 inches, lithograph on prepared paper, manuscript pages.

Ruined Landscapes, 2014, 13x18 inches, lithograph on prepared paper, manuscript pages.

Little Sister with Ruined Barracks, 2014, 13x18 inches, lithograph on prepared paper, manuscript pages.

List of Pages, Cloud, Power Plant, 2015, 13x18 inches, typewriter, lithograph and collage on prepared paper, manuscript pages.

Red Fawns in the Golden Clouds, 2016, 9.75x13.5 inches, gouache, acrylic, inks, pigments, color pencil, gold leaf on paper on panel.

Three Tents, 2016, 8.5x13 inches, collage, gouache, acrylic, pigments.

Eight Tents, 2016, 9.5x13 inches, collage, gouache, inks, pigments, gold leaf, on paper on panel.

Red Cloud, 2016, 20x26 inches, gouache, acrylic, inks, pigments, on paper on panel.

Orange Cloud, 2016, 10x19.5 inches, inks on prepared paper.

D EAN ALLE N DAS S ----------------------------Professor, University of Virginia SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2016 2015

2013 2011

2010

2009 2008

NEW PAINTINGS AND DRAWINGS, Schmidt Dean Gallery (September) ANIMALS AND CLOUDS, New City Arts, Charlottesville THE KINGDOM, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville NEW PAINTINGS, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville CLOUDS, Schmidt Dean Gallery, Philadelphia STUDIES FOR A PROJECT THAT CANNOT BE REALIZED, 1986-2011, Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville (catalog) HEAVEN AND EARTH, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville WORK ON PAPER, Schmidt Dean Gallery, Philadelphia THE LOST COLONY, Babcock Gallery, Sweet Briar College, Amherst, Virginia TROPES OF OBJECTIVITY, School of Architecture Gallery, Charlottesville NEW PAINTINGS AND DRAWINGS, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville NEW DRAWINGS, Schmidt Dean Gallery, Philadelphia

2007

PARIS ROMANCE, ADA Gallery, Richmond NEW DRAWINGS AND PAINTINGS, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville 2005 NEW PAINTINGS, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville 2004 MNEMOSYNE, Schmidt Dean Gallery, Philadelphia 2003 THE AGE OF PARTIAL OBJECTS, University of Akron, Ohio MNEMOSYNE, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville 2001 LANDSCAPE WITH EXPLOSIONS, Galleria Harmonia, Jyv채skyl채, Finland PAINTINGS FROM THREE RIVERS, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville 2000 NEW WORKS ON PAPER, Schmidt Dean Gallery, Philadelphia PICTURES FROM THE UNDERGROUND STUDIO, 3A Garage, San Francisco 1998 LAMENTATION, University of Wyoming Art Museum, Laramie NEW WORK, Schmidt Dean Gallery, Philadelphia 1997 WORKS ON PAPER, Galleria Harmonia, Jyv채skyl채, Finland 1996 COMPLETE WORKS, 1992-96, Schmidt Dean Gallery, Philadelphia 1995 NEW WORK, Reynolds Gallery, Richmond 1994 ALEXANDER AND ROXANE, Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville 1992 NEW WORKS ON PAPER, Schmidt Dean Gallery, Philadelphia 1991 1708 East Main Gallery, Richmond 1990 Danville Museum of Fine Arts and History, Danville

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Rare Book Division, Library of Congress Brooklyn Museum of Art Charlotte Printmaker's Society North Carolina Davidson College, Davidson, North Carolina Des Moines Art Center; Des Moines, Iowa Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas Free Library of Philadelphia Fenwick Library, George Mason University Iowa State University, Ames Jersey City Art Museum, New Jersey Jyv채skyl채 Art Museum, Jyv채skyl채, Finland Rare Book Library, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge Louisiana State University, Hilliard University Art Museum Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections, UNC Greensboro National Collection of Poland, Krakow Nicholls State University, Rare Book Library North Carolina Print & Drawing Society, Charlotte Philadelphia Museum of Art State of Iowa, Herbert Hoover Building, Des Moines Southern Graphics Council

Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia Temple University, Philadelphia University of Dallas, Irving Rare Book Library, Ohio State University Rare Book Library, University of California, Santa Barbara School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, W. Van Allen Clark Library University of Iowa, Special Collections Library University of Kansas, Lawrence University of Nebraska, Lincoln University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls University of South Dakota, Vermillion University of Southern Indiana University of Tennessee, John C. Hodges Special Collections Library University of Virginia Hospitals, Charlottesville Fralin Art Museum, University of Virginia University of Wyoming Art Museum, Laramie Virginia Commission for the Arts, Richmond Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond Walker Art Center, Minneapolis University of Colorado, Boulder, Rare Book Library University of Central Florida, Rare Book Library Special Collections Library, University of Denver Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans

SCHMIDT/DEAN GALLERY 1719 Chestnut Street 4th Floor Philadelphia, Pa. 19103 215-569-9433 schmidtdean@netzero.net www.schmidtdean.com https://www.youtube.com/user/schmidtdeangallery