Carole Feuerman: Body of Work

CAROLE FEUERMAN: BODY OF WORK Museum of Art - DeLand

Acknowledgments The vital impulse in all great art can always be traced to the sensual, and this is especially exemplified in the art of Carole Feuerman. A sensual impulse drives this individual to work, urging her to achieve her best; her reward is originality.

Because Carole’s creative process is an intellectual one, even though she may not be conscious of this in the fervor of creation, what she portrays changes as she attempts to define it. Artistic creation gives concrete objective form to the primary sensual impulse released by her creative urge. The original motivation of a work may be neutralized, or it may remain as a zone of erotic tension beneath the threshold of consciousness. We must remember that even when a work of art is regarded as erotic, in the sense of its being sensually exciting, different people will have different, and perhaps, even contradictory reactions to it; one person will be stimulated by something that leaves another person cold. Individual reaction to art must remain personal.

This is particularly true of Feuerman’s art because the various, possible reactions to sensualism have not as yet been codified by social convention.

Any loan exhibition requires the assistance and cooperation of numerous individuals and institutions. I first want to express my gratitude to the artist, Carole Feuerman, whose generosity in sharing her time and her art was essential to an endeavor of this nature. I’d like to recognize Linda Pinto for her generosity in being the signature sponsor for this exhibition.

David Brown, Manager of the Carole Feuerman Studio, was invaluable in his help in locating works of art, providing information and facilitating loans. The collaboration of Biba St. Croix of the Gallery Biba in Palm Beach, Florida, was also crucial in the realization of this effort.

The following donors and businesses merit special appreciation for their support of this presentation and their commitment to this year’s exhibition schedule: Dennis Aylward, Dr. Bruce Bigman and Carolyn Bigman, Samuel and Donna Blatt, Bill and Terri Booth, Earl and Patti Colvard, Sal Cristofano and Laura Gosper, Manny De La Vega, Dr. Wayne Dickson and Jewel Dickson, Robert Dorian and Linda Colvard Dorian, Lee and Susan Downer, Betty Drees Johnson, Dr. Deborah and Lee Goldring, Christie G. Harris, John and Karen Horn, Ed Jackson and Pat Heller-Jackson, Ray and Betty Johnson, Barney and Linda Lane, Tim and Mary Jeanne Ludwig, Van and Frances Massey, Walter and Robin May, Beth and Greg Milliken, Linda Pinto, Dagny and Tommy Robertson, Stephen and Claudia Roth, Patricia Schwarze, Fred and Jeanne Staloff, Harry Sugarman, Judith Thompson, Dr. Ian Williams and Dr. Nancy Hutson, Dr. John Wilton and Nancy Wilton, Lacey Family Charitable Trust, Daytona Auto Mall, Boulevard Tire Center, Collaborative WEALTH, E.O. Painter Printing Company, Fleishel Financial Associates, Lane Insurance, Inc., Mainstreet Community Bank, Publix Supermarket Charities, United Parachute Technologies, DeLand Breakfast Rotary, DeLand Fall Festival of the Arts, DeLand Rotary Club, Inc., Faith Hope & Charity, Krewe Nouveau, Museum Guild, State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, County of Volusia and City of DeLand.

Finally, I would like to recognize our institution’s Board of Trustees, led by Judy Thompson, President, for their oversight and support which has enabled the Museum to realize it’s ambitious, diverse and nationally regarded exhibition program, as well as applaud the resourceful talents of my staff whose daily achievements are a constant source of inspiration.

George S. Bolge, Chief Executive Officer Museum of Art - DeLand, Florida

“Feuerman deftly reveals the fortitude of a woman’s physical or spiritual being.”

- David S. Rubin, Brown Foundation Curator of Contemporar y Art, San Antonio Museum of Art

Catalogue #6

Carole Feuerman: A Body of Work

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an a resin cast be art if it is brightly colored and installed in a public place? Carole Feuerman thinks it can – and she’s worked very hard to prove it. Of course, she is not the first. George Segal and Duane Hanson had very successful careers making casts of people, then placing them in socially and psychologically thought-provoking situations. A number of younger artists have recently used casts as components of complex, allegorical sculptures.

Feuerman has carved a very special niche for herself. She does colorful and very provocative figures that begin as casts taken directly from her subjects and end up as freestanding sculptures in interior and exterior spaces. Most of her models appear to be the all American girl next door on summer vacation. They pose for her apparently as much out of friendship as for the fame the finished art will bring them, and generally don’t seem to mind the casting process.

Once the cast has hardened, it is painted for both realistic and expressive purposes. She pays very special attention to all details of clothing, makes certain she has caught the individual’s expression and personality, and does whatever else she feels is necessary to make the piece as truthful and effective as possible. Her intention throughout is to capture and project the individuality of her subject, the special qualities and characteristics that set her apart from all others. At the same time, she is careful not to remove the individual from her social context, or to push characterization to the point of caricature.

Color helps greatly in this. Feuerman accepts her subjects’ tastes and preferences in swimwear, makeup and accessories. She is not at all intimidated by what some might view as outlandish or garish color combinations. If that is what they like and wear, then that is part of their individual and social identity – and she would no sooner change them than she would the color of their eyes or skin.

Here again, she is primarily concerned about remaining true to the actual person from whom the cast was made. In this respect, she comes close to Norman Rockwell’s practice of painting his neighbors’ faces and figures. Just as Rockwell’s acquaintances delighted in finding themselves on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post, one assumes the people who pose for Feuerman enjoy seeing themselves in galleries and museums.

In some instances, Feuerman’s subjects find themselves in heroic scale as part of site specific projects outside of public buildings all over the world. These isolated figures, lost in moments of private reflection, are thrust onto the public stage. This, however, in no way detracts from the unique characteristics of each figure.

Catalogue #1

Feuerman’s populist leanings make themselves known not only through her choice of subjects, but also through her insistence that art should extol human values rather than strictly formal ones. To that end, empathy becomes her most effective tool, and

she will sacrifice whatever she must in order to achieve it. Her figures are too authentic and precisely defined, too seductive and alive, to be imaginary or composites. Unlike Segal’s anonymous and static figures, which never look like anything but the plaster casts they are, Feuerman’s subjects appear real and caught in the act of daydreaming, playing, swimming or any of the other things actual people do.

This can present problems of creative tact and sensibility.

How, for instance, does one prevent such works from resembling nothing but frozen, three-dimensional, colored “snapshots” or illustrations? Or how does one give them sculptural substance when their identities are largely established by empathy and painterly illusion? There is also the matter of mindless mimicry, the slavish duplication of nature that must concern any sculptor working exclusively with casts.

Catalogue #7

By and large, Feuerman has managed to avoid these pitfalls, and has transformed the raw material of life into rich human images that can sustain constant critical attention. The vast majority of her oeuvre enters the realm of art. Her figures project an aura of authenticity seldom encountered in public sculpture today. And some of her most recent figures reveal an increased ability to make casting do her bidding.

In 1908, in an essay entitled, The Natural History of Art, Edward Fuchs asserted that art is above all the “creative imitation of the sensual.” The principle, the fire element, in a word, the essence of art, is sensuality. Art is sensuality, sensuality in its most potent form. Feuerman’s art is sensuality expressed in form, sensuality expressed in visual terms, the highest and most noble form of sensuality. Accordingly, her artistic treatment of bathing themes should contain the highest possible degree of impact, for eroticism in any guise is sensuality in action, sensuality carried to its logical conclusion. Fuchs maintained that certain motifs have a sensual effect on the observer when expressed in a work of art. He thought that this sensual effect was “one of the most important criteria of the quality of erotic motifs; the more intense the effect, the greater its artistic quality.”

The criterion by which one must judge the success of Carole Feuerman’s work is its ability to conjure in the mind of the beholder an intense sensual experience. Her swimmers and her bathers, which are the building blocks of her artistic expression, can contain allusions. Their particular function is to convey artistic sensuality so that the spectator is unconsciously drawn into their power. Then the spectator understands not only the objects, but also the associations. The formal, internal elements of these figures are generally familiar and always premeditated. Nevertheless, Feuerman still has to cope with the creative task of the original visual synthesis, of the unique formulation: the discovery of what has not yet existed, for this is a prerequisite for any work of art which is to survive. Thus, this creative artist is concerned first, with the availability and then, with the adaptability of the formal expressive means with which she proposes to realize her intentions aesthetically. g.s.b

Carole A. Feuerman EDUCATION BFA, The School of Visual Arts, NY BFA, Temple University, PA BFA, Hofstra University, NY

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS City of Peekskill, Hudson Valley, Peekskill, NY City of Sunnyvale, Silicon Valley, CA The State Hermitage, Museum of Art & Culture, St. Petersburg, RUS El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX Mr. JNA Van Caldenborgh, the Caldic Collection, Rotterdam, NLD Vin & Spritcentralen Museet, Stockholm, SWE Bass Museum of Art, Miami, FL Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Los Angeles, CA Amarillo Museum of Art, Potter County, Amarillo, TX Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, FL Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA CUNY City College of NY, Queens, NY Muscarelle Museum of Art, Williamsburg, VA Chrysler Corporation, Mr. Robert S. Miller, Detroit, MI Museo Bellini Firenze, Florence, ITA Miami Children’s Museum, Miami, FL Forbes Magazine Art Collection, New York, NY Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL President Mikhail S. Gorbachev Foundation, Moscow, RUS Museum of Art | Fort Lauderdale, Ft. Lauderdale, FL Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, PA Freedman Gallery, Albright College, Reading, PA Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL Appalachian State University, Turchin Center, Boone, NC Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY Art-st-Urban Museum, Lucerne, CHE Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ Straube Center, Pennington, NJ Apollon Art Research FNDN, Mihail Chemiakin, Claverack, NY Good Samaritan Medical Center, West Palm Beach, FL Mana Contemporary Art Museum, NJ, FL, Chicago

Carole Feuerman with Catalogue #12

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS Carole Feuerman has been represented, nationally and internationally in literally hundreds of group and solo exhibitions, showing several times at select museums, galleries and art fairs across the globe, including: La Biennale Di Venezia, Venice, Italy; Art Miami, Wynwood Arts District, Miami, FL; Galerie Hübner & Hübner, Frankfurt, Germany; Harbour City, Hong Kong; Korean International Art Fair, Seoul, Korea; Art Dubai, Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Aria Art Gallery, Florence, Italy; San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX; LA Art Show, Los Angeles, CA; The Park Avenue Armory, New York, NY; Queens Museum, Queens, NY; Nassau County Museum, New York, NY; Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL; Scope Miami, Miami, FL; CI Contemporary Art Fair, Istanbul, Turkey; El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX; Galerie Klose, Essen, Germany; Lucerne, Switzerland; Amarillo Museum of Art, Amarillo, TX; Shanghai Art Fair, Shanghai, China; Beijing Biennale, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China; Scope Basel, Basel, Switzerland; and The State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia, to name only a few.

SELECTED HONORS AND AWARDS 2014 Named Ambassador for the Board of Trustees at the International Sculpture Center, Long Island City, NY

2005 Medici Award, City of Florence, Florence Biennale Internazionale Dell’Arte Contemporanea, Florence, ITA

2013 Save the Arts Museum’s Choice Award

2003 Artist Showcase Award, The Healing Power of Art, Manhattan Arts International, NY

2012 Finalist, Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, The National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC Top 50, ArtPrize 2012, Grand Rapids, MI Semifinalist, Broadway Public Art Project, The Fashion Center BID, New York, NY 2011 Top 25, ArtPrize 2011, Grand Rapids, MI 2009 Member of the Olympia Fine Art Association 2008 Best in Show, The Third International Beijing Art Biennale, Beijing, CHN First Prize, Beijing Olympic Fine Arts Exhibition, Beijing, CHN 2007 Best of America Mixed Media Artists and Artisans, National Arts Competition Top 10 of International Art Show: Realism HerStory Award, Fourth Online Art Juried Competition, Manhattan Arts, NY Award of Excellence, 9th Annual Realism International Juried Online Art Exhibition, Upstream Gallery 2006 Achievement Award, Cadillac & Hummer, 2nd International Biennale of Austria, Ausstellungszentrum Heft, Huttenberg, AUT Review Panel, Annual State Arts Block Grants Program, Country of Hudson, NJ

2002 Prize of Honor, Ausstellungszentrum Heft, Huttenberg, AUT Preliminary Winner, The 1st Guilin Yuzi Paradise International Sculpture Awards, Guangxi, CHN Artists Showcase Award, I Love Manhattan Art Competitions (Manhattan Arts International), New York, NY 2001 Lorenzo De Medici Prize, Biennale Internazionale: Dell’ Arte Contemporanea, Florence, Italy 1995 The 2nd Fujisankei Sculpture Biennale, Hakone Open-Air Museum, Kanagawa-Ken, JPN 1985 “Compromising Positions”, Paramount Pictures, Credit for Art used in film, starring Susan Sarandon 1984 First Prize, US & International Fine Arts Exhibition, DEU, FRA, ITA 1982 Amelia Peabody Sculpture Award, NY 1981 Charles D. Murphy Sculpture Award, NY 1980 National Sculpture Competition, Finalist, NY 1970 Betty Parsons Sculpture Award, NY

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Birth/ Geyser, 2013, oil on resin with interactive video, variable dimensions Christina, 2014, oil on resin, 72” x 19” x 14”; on loan from Markowicz Fine Art Miami, FL Grande Catalina, 2011, oil and resin, 62” x 38” x 17” Hand and Foot, 2014, bronze, 24” x 18” x 19” Infinity, 2013, oil on resin with stainless steel and Swarovski crystals, 38” x 37” x 21”; on loan from Markowicz Fine Art Miami, FL Kendall Island, 2014, oil on resin, 70” x 28” x 39” Monumental Brooke with Beach Ball + Video Projection, 2015, lacquer on resin, 60” x 43” x 45” Monumental Quan, 2012, lacquer on resin, 67” x 60” x 43” (back cover) New York City Slicker, 2014, lacquer on resin, 63” x 36” x 28” (cover) Next Summer, 2012, lacquer on resin, 39” x 54” x 50”; on loan from Markowicz Fine Art Miami, FL Poseidon, 2014, bronze, 18” x 17” x 17” Survival of Serena, 2015, lacquer on resin, 38”x 84” x 32” The Message, 2013, oil on bronze, 46” x 27” x 32”; on loan from Markowicz Fine Art Miami, FL Yaima on the Ball, 2014, oil on resin, 70” x 28” x 39”

Catalogue #8 Cover, Catalogue #9

Museum of Art - DeLand Staff George S. Bolge, Chief Executive Officer Dorothy Dansberger, Director of Finance and Operations Pattie Pardee, Director of Development Lisa Habermehl, Director of Marketing David Fithian, Curator of Art and Exhibitions Pam Coffman, Curator of Education Tariq Gibran, Registrar Teri Peaden, Manager of Downtown Museum Suzi Tanner, Manager of Guest Services, Membership and Special Events Printed E.O. Painter Printing Co. DeLeon Springs, FL Copyright 2016 Museum of Art - DeLand, FL

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