Zeuxis: Composing in the Key of S

AN A SSOCI ATION OF STILL LIFE PAINTERS

Composing in the Key of S ESS AY BY JOHN GOODRICH

Composing in the Key of S

FIRST STREET GALLERY New York April 27–May 22, 2021

Swirling, serpentine and sinuous, the still lifes in Zeuxis’ latest exhibition, “Composing in the Key of S,”

take inspiration from the dynamic compositions of various traditional masters. Can the elements of a still life take flight in the manner of a Turner, Chardin or Titian? If so, nature morte would become nature animée.

Temma Bell

Tim Kennedy

Edmond Praybe

Neil Callander

Deborah Kirklin

Mary Prince

Kathleen Craig

Matt Klos

Clara Shen

Daniel Dallmann

Jean Koeller

Sandra Stone

Phyllis Floyd

Richard La Presti

Gwen Strahle

John Goodrich

Ying Li

Sheldon Tapley

Elizabeth Higgins

Joseph Morzuch

Megan Williamson

Philip R. Jackson

Neil Plotkin

GUESTS Franklin Einspruch

Barbara Kassel

Diana Horowitz

Matthew Lopas

David Summers

Photos: Jed Devine: Kassel Mike Finger: Kennedy John Goodrich: Floyd, Goodrich, Li, Prince Printing: Welch Printing Company Design: Conrad Design For more information about Zeuxis visit our website at www.zeuxis.us or e-mail zeuxispf@aol.com ©2021 Zeuxis

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rtists tend to be an independent-minded bunch, and organizing them in a common effort can sometimes seem akin to that proverbial herding of cats. But the artists of Zeuxis, the association of still life painters, have proven time and again that they can rise to occasion. Over the years, Zeuxis has organized a number of exhibitions that required artists to include a certain object in their still life, or adopt a specific point of view, or favor a particular palette, and the painters — though sometimes grumbling — have largely complied.

Some, indeed, enjoyed being presented with an assignment. The results have been a series of focused exhibitions that have kept Zeuxis, after some two dozen years and fifty-odd exhibitions, a vital and evolving organization.

But using a letter of the alphabet as a compositional motif? The art world’s most formidable act of letter-interpretation may have been performed by the sculptor and writer Sidney Geist, who theorized that Cézanne had embedded the name of his childhood friend, “Z-O-L-A,” in the limbs and bodies of his “The Great Bathers II,” and the name of his hometown, “A-I-X,” in the bridges and trees of various landscapes. On the actual visual evidence of the paintings, these arguments fell pretty flat. We can, in fact, thank our lucky stars that Cézanne’s paintings were compelled not by contortions of unconscious spelling but by an urge to find the plastic necessity of every object — to, as he famously said, “redo nature after Poussin.” His language was visual, not verbal, and his great achievement was to find a new, visual means of making the world intensely real.

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Zeuxis’ assignment for this exhibition represents a far more temperate investigation than Geist’s, more of a thematic guideline than a strict formula: by one means or another, artists were to incorporate the alphabet’s most curvaceous letter into a painting of a still life. (Artists could optionally produce an interior scene.) For many of the artists, this was not a vast extension of their usual practice. Painting inherently involves an act of composition, and moreover the genre of still life affords the painter unique opportunities of rearranging a motif at will.

The results suggest that most artists adhered enthusiastically to the assignment.

Zeuxis has always taken pride in presenting a traditional genre through a variety of approaches, in terms of style, theme and technique. This variety is much in evidence in the exhibition, in approaches ranging from faithful verisimilitude to fanciful distortion, from meticulous brushwork to crusty, turgid surfaces, from everyday motifs to exotic objects. It turns out there are as many ways of shaping an “S” as there are artists in the show. Just possibly, the assigning of so simple a task liberated them in other ways, momentarily jumpstarting habits of observing and composing. And what better means of highlighting what really counts: the multiplicity of visual experiences, and differences of temperament?

— John Goodrich

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DIANA HOROWITZ Snake, 2020, oil on linen, 10” x 8”. Courtesy Bookstein Projects

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JOSEPH MORZUCH Tire Tread with Cord and Traffic Cone, 2015-20, oil on canvas on panel, 38 ½” x 33 ½”

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JEAN KOELLER Box of Rocks #3, 2020, oil on panel, 10” x 14”

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JEAN KOELLER Landscape Parts 21.2, 2021, oil on paper on panel, 14½” x 11¼” in.

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KATHLEEN CRAIG Cup + Hammock w/ Sun, 2018, oil on canvas, 18”x 24”

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JOHN GOODRICH Two Red Peppers, 2021, oil on board, 14” x 20”

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EDMOND PRAYBE Orchid, Deer Skull and Blue Jar, 2021, oil on linen on panel, 20” x 24”

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RICHARD LA PRESTI Oblique, 2021, acrylic on canvas, 28” x 40”

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RICHARD LA PRESTI Skull, 2021, acrylic on canvas, 30” x 35”

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RICHARD LA PRESTI Conundrum, 2021, acrylic on canvas, 36” x 36”

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DEBORAH KIRKLIN Composition with Shells, 2020, watercolor on paper, 14” x 17”

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MEGAN WILLIAMSON from the bottom of the Sea, 2020, oil on canvas, 14” x 12”

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CLARA SHEN A Bunch of Bananas, 2021, oil on linen, 16” x 20”

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PHYLLIS FLOYD Plastic Objects #2, 2021, oil on linen, 16” x 20”

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PHYLLIS FLOYD Objets Plastiques #1, 2021, watercolor, 10” x 14”

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PHYLLIS FLOYD Objets Plastiques #2, 2021, watercolor, 12” x 16”

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SANDRA STONE Compote with Mirror, 2018, oil on canvas, 11” x 10”

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MATT KLOS Motor, 2019, oil on linen, 9 ¼” x 12”

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YING LI Wild Orchid, 2021, oil on canvas, 36” x 24”

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FRANKLIN EINSPRUCH Tulips in Vase, 2021, watercolor and egg tempera on paper, 9” x 6”

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GWEN STRAHLE Yellow Vase, 2021, oil on canvas, 14” x 15”

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DAVID SUMMERS Sad Flora (S is for Swan), 2021, oil on panel, 20” x 16”. Courtesy Les Yeux du Monde

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DAVID SUMMERS Flora in Winter, 2021, oil on panel, 24” x 18”. Courtesy Les Yeux du Monde

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DANIEL DALLMANN Studio Space w/ Still Life, 2020, oil on wood, 15” x 12”

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ELIZABETH HIGGINS Across The River, 2020, oil on canvas, 40” x 30”

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NEIL PLOTKIN Boxed Books, 2020-21, oil on panel, 36” x 24”

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NEIL PLOTKIN Floyd’s Falls (After Turner’s The Falls of the Reichenbach), 2021, oil on panel, 40” x 36”

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BARBARA KASSEL Calling, 2017, triptych oil on linen on panel, 12” x 28”. Courtesy The Clark Gallery

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BARBARA KASSEL Wafer, 2016, oil on panel, 8” x 8”

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BARBARA KASSEL A Nice Cup of Coffee and BonBons, 2017, oil on gessoed panel, 8” x 8”

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NEIL CALLANDER Winter Geranium, 2017, oil on panel, 16” x 20”

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MATTHEW LOPAS Dining Room and Deck, 2021, oil on wood, 23” x 36”

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SHELDON TAPLEY S., 2015, oil on panel, 20” x 18”

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TIM KENNEDY Optometrist’s Daughter, 2020, oil on muslin panel, 24” x 24”

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MARY PRINCE Setting For Two, 2019, oil on panel, 12” x 16”

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TEMMA BELL Still Life in the Key of S, 2019-20, oil on linen, 22” x 28”

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PHILIP R. JACKSON Egg Yolk in Brown, 2009, oil on panel, 6 ½” x 8”

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