Tom Palmore - My Menagerie 2016

TOM PALMORE MY MENAGERIE

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Tom Palmore My Menagerie

JULY 22 - AUGUST 21.2016

LewAllenGalleries 1613 Paseo de Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | tel 505.988.3250 www.lewallengalleries.com | info@lewallengalleries.com cover: Bath Time, 2016, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 42 x 60 in

Tom Palmore Animalities It would be easy to imagine that Tom Palmore lives in a world all his own. It is a unique and delightful world in which animals and birds are no longer merely wildlife but have evolved to possess highly individualized personalities (maybe a better word is “animalities”) – with body language to match. In that world animals are not subservient to humans but rather more like co-equal sentient beings, not humanized but possessing idiosyncrasies and manifesting feelings and thoughts that visually and eloquently communicate to their human observers. It is a world in which Bengal tigers are pensive thinkers, Grizzly bears can be sultry vamps, Westies narcissist beauties, and bulldogs coy dandies.

In this Palmore world animals and birds willingly pause from life in the jungle, woods, mountains, back yards or alleys to pose as models for the artist’s portraits. Judged by their extraordinary technical precision and interpretive sensitivity, these portraits arguably should take a place in art history alongside portraiture (with less exciting human subjects) rendered by the great masters of the genre like Raphael, Ingres and David.

Settings for the portraits in Palmore’s world transcend what, in our more mundane one, might be thought normal or usual. His seem novel to us: some may come out of paintings of historical importance – Miro, Monet, Seurat, Pop Art, Surrealism, Asian Silk painting or Hudson River School to name a few. Others might be based on patterned wallpaper from the ‘50s, Aztec wall reliefs, State flags, celestial vistas of planets and stars, or silk draperies. To us, none of these seems expected or congruent combined with the parrots, gorillas, tigers, leopards, bunnies, steers, raptors, boxers, bulldogs, or tabby cats posed in front of them.

But Palmore offers up a new normal. Vastly beyond merely mimetic replicas of wildlife, the visual stories he tells in acrylic and oil on canvas are clever, intelligent, charming and provocative, alive with vibrant new meanings. They operate on the observer in much the same way that the magical realism of, say, Gabriel García Márquez: both invite alternative modes of seeing and, by presenting the unlikely juxtaposed with the familiar in matter-of-fact ways, they inspire the imagination, open the preconceived to reexamination, and broaden thought about the possible.

Such is the conceptual framework of this extraordinary artist. His paintings raise questions about the cultural space allotted to animals in the contemporary world. Palmore subtly elevates animals’ stature in his paintings through both the distinctive individuality that his art confers upon the subject and the discordant but alluringly beautiful cultural and art historical backgrounds he uses. These techniques and the reverence he demonstrates for his subjects can be seen to operate as powerful validation for animal protection and environmental preservation.

The gold leaf adorning the Himalayan-like peaks in “Snow Leopard” is resonant of the high value that should be accorded to preserving this endangered animal. In “Heavy is the Crown,” the regally sage countenance of the

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Bengal tiger is compelling testament to the wisdom of protecting this noble animal in jeopardy of extinction.

The message is made more convincing by the subtlety of Palmore’s deft use of odd congruities to provoke regard.

Clever visual wit presented in understated ways becomes clarion. The backgrounds Palmore uses emerge from a reality as authentic as that of the animal image itself. Prairie dogs rarely stand majestically, as they do in “Royal Family,” in front of royal blue silk curtains – but they could. It’s just that the two usually are not thought of as occurring together. The genius of Palmore, however, is to place them in tandem in a manner that seems so utterly plausible on first notice that it takes time for the disjunction to sink in.

Once the bold colors and hyper-realistic imagery grabs the observer’s attention, the process of abstracting deeper meanings from the disrupted connections between subject and setting can be a gradual one. As the well-known art critic and author Dave Hickey has observed: “Beauty is not the end of art; it’s only the beginning. It creates conditions under which we might voluntarily look carefully at something.”

It is in the careful looking at a Palmore painting and the realization of that disjunctive plausibility that Palmore’s work is seen to be both visually and intellectually powerful. It entices the viewer to suspend disbelief and enter into a new way of looking and thinking. His juxtaposition of discordant elements in re-contextualized arrangements seems natural until closer examination reveals their improbable combination. In the moment of surprised recognition there is both sophisticated humor and a more serious impact. One realizes that what is real is not always what we think it is. The literal and the imaginative merge to produce images that are both captivating and profound.

The artist’s dry wit and satirical sense of humor rooted in irony and playful parody manifest visibly in his paintings.

Certainly it started early when as a child Palmore was fascinated by the sight at a tourist attraction of “a pig pushing a shopping cart and a duck that played a piano.” This sort of whimsy eases the recognition that indistinct absurdity is a fact of life and exists just below the surface of what we think normal to be. Indeed, if we open our minds to it, we see that in the quirkiness of the vaguely mismatched there can be delight, and levels of creative imagination can be ignited.

It is Palmore’s unique capacity to enchant the ordinary and use it to amplify thinking about the extraordinary that has resulted in his charmingly beautiful and conceptually consequential paintings finding their way into the collections of major museums such as the Smithsonian, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Denver Art Museum, the Brooklyn Museum and many others. His work was included in a

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Whitney Annual when the artist was 25 and later he was chosen for inclusion in the Venice Biennale.

The artist’s considerable intelligence is illustrated not only by his witty expositive compositions on canvas but also by his facility with puns and clever titles. In this exhibition, for example, “China Doll” is the title Palmore gives to a smiling zaftig panda bear set against the flag of the People’s Republic of China. A Grizzly bear swimming placidly among two rubber ducks is entitled “Bath Time” and a mountain lion gazing languidly over its shoulder is called “When Elegance Meets Fear.” Clever titles complement Palmore’s brilliant visual puns.

The distinctive style developed by Palmore over more than 45 years of dedicated painting cannot be confused with that of any other artist and is nearly impossible to copy. When in the presence of a Palmore painting, there is rarely a question about who the artist is. His singular style is an amalgamation of technical exactitude (a subject’s fur will often involve thousands of minute brush strokes as with “Heavy is the Crown” for example), sumptuous color and rich texture (he employs underpainting in acrylic over which he applies oil paints as with “Sometimes You Really Like Yourself”), and unusual lighting and perspective (perfectly illustrated in “When Elegance Meets Fear”). A hallmark of his painting is the mesmerizing gaze by many of his subjects that uncannily seems to follow the observer’s movement. Palmore has said that he thinks that eyes are the most important part of his images.

“I’ve modified more pupils over the decades than I can even begin to count. I don’t care how well I’ve painted the feather or coat, an animal doesn’t come to life or communicate to others until the eyes are just right.”

Making eyes – as well as fur, feathers, settings and ideas – “just right” is what Palmore world is all about. It is a wonderful world in which an ingenious artist wraps together this meticulous style with cleverly discordant combinations of subject and background in what become serious yet tongue-in-cheek compositions presented with an artistic straight-face.

– Kenneth R. Marvel

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Membe Prefers Blue, 2016, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in

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Sultry Bear, 2016, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in

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Lynx, 2014, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 24 x 36 in 7

Bobcat, 2016, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 20 x 16 in 8

Harpy Eagle Looking Like an Indian Chief, 2015, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in 9

A Gamble Quail, 2016, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 18 x 24 in

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Snow Leopard, 2015, Acrylic and oil on board, 18 x 24 in 11

Big Billy Takes a Ride, 2016, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in 12

China Doll, 2016, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 48 x 48 in 13

Mountain Lion, 2015, Acrylic and oil on board, 18 x 24 in 14

Birds of a Feather, 2015, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in 15

Heavy is the Crown, 2015, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 42 x 66 in 16

My Redheaded Friend, 2016, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in 17

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Sometimes You Really Like Youself, 2016, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 36 x 60 in 19

Snow Leopard, 2016, Oil and gold leaf on board (with Nancy Reyner), 36 x 48 in 20

When Elegance Meets Fear, 2016, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 36 x 60 in 21

The Royal Family, 2016, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in 22

First Light, 1993, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 46 x 72 in

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You Know You’re Beautiful, 2015, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in

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Being Pretty is Dangerous, Mott Mott, 2015, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 48 x 36 in 25

Peterson’s Big Cat, 2016, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 44 x 40 in

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Freedom, With a Natural Smile, 2015, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 48 x 72 in 27

Young Male Mountain Gorilla, 2016, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 24 x 36 in

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Mister Adorable, 2016, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 20 x 16 in 29

Tom Palmore

(b. 1945: Ada, OK)

EDUCATION

1976 Marion Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

1967-69 Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts

1975 Louis K. Miesel Gallery, New York, NY

1965-66 North Texas State University, Denton, TX

1973 Trophies, Bernard Dannenberg Galleries,

1963-65 University of Nevada, Reno, NV

Philadelphia, PA

1971 Gorillas, Midgets, & a Couple of Dogs, Marion SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2016

My Menagerie, LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM

2013

Astoria Gallery, Jackson, WY

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2012

Cats, Birds and a Couple of Monkeys, LewAllen

2014-16 Cowboy Hall of Fame, Oklahoma City, OK

Galleries, Santa Fe, NM (also Animal Farm,

2010, Tom Palmore, 2008, Portraits of the

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

Animal World, 2006, and Tom Palmore, 2004)

Albuquerque Museum of Art

2011

Sorrel Sky Gallery, Durango, CO (also 2009)

Allentown Museum of Art

2007

Astoria Gallery, Jackson, WY

Brooklyn Museum

1999

US Artist 99, Philadelphia, PA

Denver Art Museum

The Academy Show, J. Cacciola Galleries,

Everson Museum of Art

New York, NY; also Other Earthlings (also

Indianapolis Museum of Art

1998 and 1994)

National Museum of Wildlife Art

1995 Roland Betts Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

New Mexico Music of Art

1993 Elaine Horwitch Gallery, Santa Fe, NM (also

New Orleans Museum of Art

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art

1992, 1981 and 1979)

1991 Sherry Frumkin Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

Philadelphia Museum of Art

1989 Birds, Bulls, and a Couple of Monkeys,

Phoenix Art Museum

Princeton University

Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

1986 Recent Paintings, Gerald Peters Gallery, Dallas, TX

Smithsonian Institute

1985 Performing Animals, Route 66,

St. Louis Art Museum

Twenty Mule Team Museum

Philadelphia, PA

1983 Texas Wildlife, F.C.I., Fort Worth, TX

Whitney Gallery of Western Art

1977 Paint By Numbers, Janet Fleischer, Philadelphia, PA

Whitney Museum of American Art

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Really Blue Bird, 2016, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 20 x 16 in 31 31

1613 Paseo de Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | tel 505.988.3250 www.lewallengalleries.com | info@lewallengalleries.com Š 2016 LewAllen Contemporary LLC 32 Artwork Š Tom Palmore