EugeneLeroy: The Gaze, the Gawk, and the Paint
At Michael Werner Gallery in New York City February 2008
July 2, 2008
Eugene Leroy is all about the paint. There is a visceral quality to the surface of the canvas, both for the viewer and from the artist. Seeing a Leroy painting in person is like being attracted to a stranger from across the room, and as you cross the floor to get closer you find yourself wondering, "What is that"? You begin to question the decision to get a better look, becoming aware of your own presence, realizing that the image you saw across the gallery fades until you are face to face with paint.
There is something very human about the surface of a Leroy painting which entangles one's thoughts with the human touch. The hand of Leroy is reaching out from the surface of the canvas and grabbing the gaze, or is it that we are gawking at the absurdity of the amount of paint he used? Either way you find yourself planted in front of the painting staring, shifting your weight from side to side intertwined and unpacking the painting. Simultaneously you are aware of your own presence as you make hand gestures as though Leroy himself was standing next to you guiding your hand to trace the marks.
Leroy seems to have followed an idea to some ridiculous conclusion. But within the ridiculousness of the paint there is the process of painting, a virtue that reflects the human touch before the medium or the image. Reminding us of our presence, standing in front of the painting with Leroy as he paints, in a space and time that can only be though of as "now", a time where the viewer and the painter are both present, void of technology, entertainment or politics. Reflecting on the timeless question of self.
This question of self-awareness is full body, found in the head, the belly and the heart. The head or the analytical is engaged through the gaze as Leroy attempts to hold on to the figure as he drapes the human experience onto the form through the brush marks and the viewer's attempt to determine the form of the figure from those marks. The belly or the visceral is achieved as Leroy examines the limits of the paint with an uber-application and the viewer gawks at and wrestles with the juxtaposition between the disfigured shape and the medium. The heart or the virtue is found in the paint as it reflects the presence of the viewer and Leroy in the same moment thinking of ones own presence in this world.
When the head, the belly, and the heart are found full one touches eternity, the ah-ha moment. The mind's eye sees clearly; a time when the finite mind enters into lucidity. Eugene Leroy as painter returned to paint and rose above the distracting and entanglement of modernity.
At Michael Werner Gallery in New York City February 2008
July 2, 2008
Eugene Leroy is all about the paint. There is a visceral quality to the surface of the canvas, both for the viewer and from the artist. Seeing a Leroy painting in person is like being attracted to a stranger from across the room, and as you cross the floor to get closer you find yourself wondering, "What is that"? You begin to question the decision to get a better look, becoming aware of your own presence, realizing that the image you saw across the gallery fades until you are face to face with paint.
There is something very human about the surface of a Leroy painting which entangles one's thoughts with the human touch. The hand of Leroy is reaching out from the surface of the canvas and grabbing the gaze, or is it that we are gawking at the absurdity of the amount of paint he used? Either way you find yourself planted in front of the painting staring, shifting your weight from side to side intertwined and unpacking the painting. Simultaneously you are aware of your own presence as you make hand gestures as though Leroy himself was standing next to you guiding your hand to trace the marks.
Leroy seems to have followed an idea to some ridiculous conclusion. But within the ridiculousness of the paint there is the process of painting, a virtue that reflects the human touch before the medium or the image. Reminding us of our presence, standing in front of the painting with Leroy as he paints, in a space and time that can only be though of as "now", a time where the viewer and the painter are both present, void of technology, entertainment or politics. Reflecting on the timeless question of self.
This question of self-awareness is full body, found in the head, the belly and the heart. The head or the analytical is engaged through the gaze as Leroy attempts to hold on to the figure as he drapes the human experience onto the form through the brush marks and the viewer's attempt to determine the form of the figure from those marks. The belly or the visceral is achieved as Leroy examines the limits of the paint with an uber-application and the viewer gawks at and wrestles with the juxtaposition between the disfigured shape and the medium. The heart or the virtue is found in the paint as it reflects the presence of the viewer and Leroy in the same moment thinking of ones own presence in this world.
When the head, the belly, and the heart are found full one touches eternity, the ah-ha moment. The mind's eye sees clearly; a time when the finite mind enters into lucidity. Eugene Leroy as painter returned to paint and rose above the distracting and entanglement of modernity.
Poisson au bord de l'eau
(Fish at Water's Edge)
151/4 x 18 inches
(65 x 50 cm.)
1997
(Fish at Water's Edge)
151/4 x 18 inches
(65 x 50 cm.)
1997
Poisson au bord de l'eau
(Fish at Water's Edge)
151/4 x 18 inches
(65 x 50 cm.)
1997
(Fish at Water's Edge)
151/4 x 18 inches
(65 x 50 cm.)
1997