Intimisms - - Exhibitions

Images

FAIRFIELD PORTER
The Bedroom, 1949
Oil on board
16 x 12 in.

JCG8691

JOHN MCALLISTER
blazing oceans murmur of a cloud, 2015
Oil on canvas over panel
72 x 168 in.
182.9 x 426.7 cm

JCG8570

JANE FREILICHER
Flowers in Armchair, 1956
Oil on linen
30 x 29 in.

JCG8692

LUCIAN FREUD
Small Figure, 1983-84
Oil on canvas
8 7/8 x 13 inches

JCG8723

LOUIS EILSHEMIUS (1864-1941)
Untitled (Nude at Bath), c.1917
Oil on paperboard mounted to Masonite
25 1/4 x 19 1/8 in.

JCG8597

ALICE NEEL
John Lucca, 1960s
Oil on canvas
44 x 32 in.

JCG8636

ALICE NEEL
The Fugs, 1966
Oil on canvas
50 x 30 in.
127 x 76.2 cm

JCG8637

JOAN BROWN
Twenty to Nine, 1972
Oil enamel on Masonite
90 x 48 in.

JCG8656

SYLVIA SLEIGH
Max with Angels, 1999
Oil on canvas
52 x 20 in.

JCG8715

SYLVIA SLEIGH
Joachim Neurroschel, 1970
Oil on canvas
38 x 18 in.
96.5 x 45.7 cm

JCG8716

SANGRAM MAJUMDAR
Interrupted (No. 2) or After Vuillard's 'The Yellow Curtain', 2014
Oil on canvas
30 x 24 in.

JCG8657

JORDAN CASTEEL
Mom Hand, 2014
Oil on canvas
32 x 26 in.
81.3 x 66 cm

JCG8567

RIDLEY HOWARD
Line Rose, 2016
Oil on linen
6 x 6 in.

JCG8721

RIDLEY HOWARD
Peach Sunrise, 2016
Oil on linen
9 x 12 in.

JCG8719

RIDLEY HOWARD
Midnight, 2016
Oil on linen
6 x 6 in.

JCG8720

HENRY TAYLOR
Fawn Rogers, 2015
Acrylic on canvas
42 x 35 1/2 in.

JCG8259

HEIDI HOWARD
Susanna Coffey, 2015
Oil on canvas
30 x 24 in.

JCG8646

BENJAMIN DEGEN
The City Rising, 2016
Oil paint and spray enamel on linen over panel
42 x 60 in.

JCG8711

ANNA GLANTZ
Portrait of Jack, 2015
Oil on canvas
56 x 46 in.

JCG8713

ANNA GLANTZ
Blind Ace, 2016
Oil on canvas
56 x 46 in.

JCG8714

HEATHER GUERTIN
The Form of an Ear, 2016
Oil on canvas
18 x 15 in.
45.7 x 38.1 cm

JCG8679

SUSANNA COFFEY
The Rose Light Past Delancey 8/30/15, 2015
Oil on panel
9 x 6 in.
22.9 x 15.2 cm

JCG8643

ALIZA NISENBAUM
Maria's Archive, 2016
Oil on linen
20 x 18 in.

JCG8724

ALIZA NISENBAUM
MOIA's NYC Womens Cabinet, 2016
Oil on linen
68 x 85 in.

JCG8712

HOPE GANGLOFF
Stahl at Kennedy, 2016
Acrylic and cut paper on canvas
82 x 54 in.

JCG8709

GAHEE PARK
Night Talk, 2016
Oil on canvas
85 x 65 in

JCG8683

GIORDANNE SALLEY
Morning Shadow, 2016
Oil and paper on canvas
32 x 30 in.

JCG8588

GIORDANNE SALLEY
Fire Painting, 2016
Oil and paper on canvas
30 x 34 in.

JCG8589

PATRICIA TREIB
M.A. Reading, 2015
Watercolor and gouache on paper
12 1/2 x 9 1/2 in.

Press Release

SYLVIA SLEIGH, Joachim Neurroschel, 1970

OPENING RECEPTION: THURSDAY, JUNE 23, 6 - 8 PM

James Cohan is pleased to present Intimisms, a group exhibition that considers the continuing legacy of the Intimists. A group of late 19th and early 20th-century artists that included Jean-Edouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard, the Intimists created jewel-like portraits of family and friends in richly-colored interiors during moments of domestic quietude. Organized with artist Aliza Nisenbaum, the exhibition features twenty-six historic, established, and emerging artists and is on view at the gallery’s Chelsea location from June 23 through July 29, 2016.

Included in the exhibition are paintings by Ellen Altfest, Joan Brown, Jordan Casteel, Susanna Coffey, Ben Degen, Louis Eilshemius, Nicole Eisenman, Jane Freilicher, Lucian Freud, Hope Gangloff, Anna Glantz, Heather Guertin, Heidi Howard, Ridley Howard, Sangram Majumdar, John McAllister, Alice Neel, Aliza Nisenbaum, Jennifer Packer, Ga Hee Park, Fairfield Porter, Giordanne Salley, Tschabalala Self, Sylvia Sleigh, Alison Elizabeth Taylor, Henry Taylor, and Patricia Treib.

Following the advent of the genre by its earliest French practitioners, artists have practiced successive modes of intimism inside rooms and behind closed doors, amongst friends and confidants, through diary entries and inner monologues, revealing confessions and secrets, all filtered through their aestheticized private view. The style privileges an artist’s ineffable affinities and communion with his or her subject, rather than emphasizing direct observation and storytelling. Intimisms considers the artists who champion this introspection, focusing on the interior spaces of their studios, living spaces, and bedrooms, while looking to friends, family, and lovers as subjects. Contemporary painters continue to press and stretch against the subtle confines of the genre, updating this endeavor for the 21st century.

For modern audiences, the most intimate moments are often posted, liked, and hashtagged instantaneously. How then are these previously private, sometimes clandestine, moments preserved in our era? Writing about a younger generation of painters working through the legacy of the Intimists, writer and curator Chris Sharp of Lulu in Mexico City raises doubts, “about the feasibility of intimacy, perceiving it less as a fact of life than an ethical mode, won through the increasingly rare act of paying attention.” For these artists, the act of painting actualizes and secures the personal intimacy they seek with their subjects.

Like Bonnard and Vuillard before them, these artists allow the physical interior to serve as a symbol for the soul and psyche, revealing that one’s personal viewpoint—a subjective view of reality—holds unique and vital meaning.

We would like to thank and credit Chris Sharp, from whose essay “Aliza Nisenbaum: Portraits, Letters, Books and Flowers,” this exhibition was in large part inspired.

Aliza Nisenbaum (b. Mexico City, Mexico) is a New York based artist. She is an assistant professor at Columbia University School of the Arts and has exhibited both in the United States and internationally. Recent exhibitions include Mary Mary, Glasgow, UK; White Columns, New York, NY; and Lulu, Mexico City, Mexico. Her work was also included in the Biennial of the Americas, Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, CO; the Rufino Tamayo Painting Biennial, Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico; Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice, Italy; The Renaissance Society, Chicago, IL; and the Poor Farm, Manawa, WI.

For press inquiries, please contact Jeffrey Waldron at jwaldron@jamescohan.com or
212-714-9500.

For other inquiries, please contact David Norr at dnorr@jamescohan.com or
212-714-9500.

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