New York, NY March 9, 2010 – Forum Gallery presents an exhibition of fifteen bold new drawings by Susan Hauptman.
Hauptman’s highly refined drawings are difficult to categorize. Realistic and idealized, austere and playful, exposed and secretive: these incongruities keep her audience on their toes.
Created in the four years since her last exhibition at Forum Gallery, the works in the current exhibition take Hauptman’s career-long exploration of the principles of drawing in charcoal one step further. The artist intends these works as studies on the basic structure of line, shading and tonality. The smooth surface of each drawing belies the subtle complexities of their composition: each gesture and object stands in for a part of the artist’s life.
In each of these preternaturally realistic portraits the artist has chosen an unusual element to pair with her constant medium, charcoal: plastic charms affixed to the paper with encaustic encircle the artist’s larger-than-life neck in Self-Portrait (with charms), 2008, while feathers protrude from the picture plane and decorate her pointed hat in Self-Portrait (with feathers), 2007. Incorporating these objects gives the viewer a playful way to relate to each drawing and a shared knowledge with the artist.
Susan Hauptman’s drawings have been included in exhibitions at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC; the Long Beach Museum of Art, CA; the Naples Museum of Art, FL; the Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock; the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA; and the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH. Hauptman’s work is included in the collections of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; and the Glenn Janss Collection, ID, among others.
Location: New York 5th Floor