 Torso of Joe Barnes, 2003 collage, 92 x 68" Chambliss Giobbi Portraits Jack the Pelican is proud to present "Portraits," the solo debut of Chambliss Giobbi. Giobbi squeezes out introspective depths from the noble, time-wizened head and torso of 80-year-old minimalist painter Joe Barnes. These gigantic collage portraits are compiled from hundreds of photographs that Giobbi has assiduously torn and glued to sculpt the image fleshmeat into telling grotesqueries of anatomy and expression. Although perhaps reminiscent of Francis Bacon's "Screaming Popes", the deep and abiding pathos in these images connects them more strongly to such works of the Late Hellenistic Age as the "Dying Gaul" and the "Seated Boxer". They honor a man - and indeed, an era, in its twilight. Giobbi has come to this soul-torn intensity through Wagner, Strauss, Zemlinsky, Korngold, Mahler. He in fact only recently abandoned a significant, 17-year career as a composer of operatic and orchestral scores, and is entirely without artistic training. He writes: "Each little snippet of a phrase, each individual instrument and countless combinations of phrases and instruments come together to make one know, for example, the lust Herod feels for his daughter-in-law, Salome, as his hanging, painted face ogles her in a drunken fog, his bejeweled fingers hanging lazily at his side. It is a passionate, triumphant and vulgar portrait: a lasting decadent gesture from the last of the Romantics". Exhibition: February 21 - March 21, 2004 Gallery hours: Fri-Mon 12 - 6pm Jack the Pelican Presents gallery (Rear atrium) 487 Driggs Avenue USA-Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11211 Telephone +718 782 0183 Email Don@jackthepelicanpresents.com http://jackthepelicanpresents.com |
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