GREENE CATALOG

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Copyright 2010 Ralph Beery Greene, Jr and The Packard Agency, LLC. All Rights Reserved.Photography by Pat Berrett. Design by The Packard Agency. Printing by Don Mickey

Designs.



Guy

Rectangle

Ralph Beery Greene, Jr

VARIOUS SHADES OF GREENE

The Packard Agency38 Calle del Sol

Placitas, NM 87043www.thepackardagency.com



Cover: Red Rocks, 2009Oil on canvas, 14 x 11 inches



RALPH BEERY GREENE, JR.

Ralph Beery Greene, Jr. is a rarity in the world of contemporary art: a newly discovered, significant, working artist…but with almost four decades of notable work in his repertoire. Various Shades of Greene is an introduction to that work.

A protégé at Pratt in the 70s of acclaimed artist George McNeil, himself a student of Expressionist master Hans Hoffman, Greene has made his art for the past 20 years at his studios in two different worlds: Brooklyn and Albuquerque.

Influenced and affected by Bacon and DeKooning, Hoffman and Bonnard, Gorky and Diebenkorn, the artist has maintained his strong expressionist tradition but remained distinct. Packed with experience and emotion, a Greene work can rarelybe taken at face value; each piece demands scrutiny. McNeil described Greene as“an accomplished artist with intrinsic merit as a painter” – that is, a natural. More recently, he’s been compared to his literary counterparts (and Celtic forebears) in the world of Irish storytelling, and readily admits his propensity for a remarkable degree of self-exposure in his work.

In a 2010 review of a rare exhibition of Green’s work critic Wesley Pullka wrote: “These powerful paintings reach beyond influences and external inspirations to claim new high ground for a dedicated artist speaking in his true voice…a breathtaking array of creative production from an artist who has led a secretive and mysterious existence.”

The pieces catalogued here have been selected to demonstrate Greene’scompositional range, his willingness to explore while maintaining his expressionist baseline, the depth of his passions, and his versatility with various mediums. This collection is comprised of 20 drawings, watercolors, pastels and mixed media pieces,and 6 oils. The plates are accompanied by a few rare insights about each piece taken directly from the artist. He has other “shades of Greene” to share. This is merely a debut.

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Opposite: Hold Me Tight, 1976Dry pastel on paper, 18 x 24 inches

This is more or less a companion piece to “Boy’s Pond,” done around the same time. An inside landscape as counterpoint to the outside landscape of Pond, the city’s tall structures nevertheless seep through the studio’s window as the artist’s favorite parallel clamps pose in the foreground. Chairs, tools, random inanimate objects are often imbued with life from human use; ironically, they often outlast their user.





Opposite: White Woman - Bad Hair Day, 1970Intaglio on paper, 15 7/8 x 21 3/4 inches

A very early piece etched and printed in the printing studio at Pratt. It’s reallyabout the inside space not the live Mestizo model’s wild hair -- which was enhanced a bit purely for visual reasons. Originally an edition of 3 or 4, this is the last AP of this print.





Opposite: Eye Maze, 1982Acrylic on paper, 18 x 14 inches

This mysterious piece evolves from reflections on the nature of the voyeurism of so called “peeping Tom’s” and artists unsatisfied with mere observation and representation. Voyeurism so often satisfied through windows looking out – or in.





Opposite: Blossom, 1979Dry pastel on paper, 24 x 18 inches

A Brooklyn drawing form a live (and very lively) model. The classic profile heavily overdrawn with “suggestions” gleaned from her continual repositioning and applied to the paper from several angles - the paper itself turned or repositioned as the work proceeds. Some of the suggestions are fully articulated, some not. Each layer a story….





Opposite: SS Virgo # 3, 1971Mixed media on paper 17 ¾ x 19 inches

A drawing highlighting the mastery of balance and spatial relationship, captured in a simple portrait of an artists’ studio at Pratt Institute. Showing the artist’s old blue jacket hanging from an easel - but suggesting a real or imagine figure). The piece, drawn from still life, is about as representational as the artist’s work ever gets.





Opposite: Owl Copy # ?, 1981Mixed media on paper, 22 x 20 inches

Owls and ravens have appeared in my work periodically over a long period of time. This one was part of a small series of “creatures” commissioned by a Jesuit priest in Brooklyn in 1981. Unbeknownst to the good father, it was intended as a self-portrait of the artist at the time.





Opposite: Red Door, 1971Mixed media and collage on paper, 20 x 26 inches

An example of seeking the “right” perspective on an interior, this early piece captures a spare Brooklyn studio with its seminal red passageway to the outside world. It took gesso, pastel, collage, and finally an acrylic door to express a classic dilemma of making art: for oneself or others? Here, the artist emerges lower left to establish the perspective (maybe just long enough to obliterate the scribble on the wall?)





Opposite: Red Tits, 1974Mixed media on paper with collage, 18 x 24 inches

This drawing, done in Dick Letham’s studio in New York, is an early example of my approach to live models. I prefer and often insist on movement -- place to place and pose to pose -- and spontaneous activity, from which I capture an “aura.” Here, a red bra flew across the space. Armed with a new pack of colored paper swatches, I later enclosed the movement and structured the piece with collage.





Opposite: New Mexico Cross, 1999Dry pastel on paper, 22 x 15 inches

Drawn at the 212 Broadway studios in Albuquerque, working outside watching heavy traffic. A troubling thought about road carnage (a premonition of a soon-to-occur auto accident?) and the ironically lovely, delicate monuments such tragedies propagate on roadsides amidst wild desert growth. A fleeting thought captured in an unrelated visual setting.





Opposite: A Lot More Interesting Than Saturday, 1985Dry pastel on paper, 15 x 22 1/4 inches

Straight charcoal on Arches paper, done at the 131 studio in Brooklyn. Luck plays a part in most drawings and the first line on this one, done with the model in spotlight in front of a white sheet, was “lucky.” Leading swiftly and naturally to a singular composition than didn’t need adjustment or alteration. A study in pure composition – apparently done after a string of bad days in the studio…





Opposite: Freudian Signs, 1978Watercolor and oil pastel on paper, 24 x 18 inches

One of the “dream state” drawings from the late 70s, this symbolist piece was completed in stages, the oil added after the fact. Likely an attempt to give form and sense to the confusing “trash” that so often characterizes the painter’s dreams; but whimsical and pretty in spite of its dead-of-night origins.





Opposite: Rehoboth, 1978 Watercolor on paper, 18 x 24 inches

Veering from a customary emphasis on form for figures, interiors, even landscapes, this is an exercise in “opening up” to outside space. The former Delaware landmark was “Funland,” an enterprise of the colorful Foznot family, which provided both income and summer delight to scores of teens for many years. Done on site in watercolor on an easel, this uncharacteristic stylized impression expresses the carefree sparkle of the place years after its heyday.





Opposite: Evaporate, 2010Oil on canvas, 36 x 24 inches

This recent “state of mind” oil with its Moorish and religious elements was painted in the Albuquerque studio but inadvertently left out in the rain. The happy accident led to overpainting of a mosaic foreground, causing the figure to recede and dissolve a bit. Her halo – Guadalupe? – on again, off-again - ended “on” with the final element: an inconsolable heart, a final Imprimatur of the artist.





Opposite: Green Earing (sic), 1981 Dry pastel on paper, 19 x 25 3/8 inches

An exotic dark model in a subdued space, drawn on black Arches paper. Festooned with her own props and those green earrings, this Odalisque is more about deconstruction of the scene than construction of a model in a setting. This session was fun, not at all somber in spite of the darkness. (The SJ symbol was drawn left-handed for some reason - its meaning now lost.)





Opposite: Red Rocks, 2009Oil on canvas, 14 x 11 inches

This is a purely conjured outside scene painted in the Albuquerque studio, not “in plain air.” The visual references to the red rocks at Jemez are serendipitous but clear, the horizontal planes re-worked repeatedly over the course of a week to refine what was originally just an imagined mountain summit.





Opposite: Wedding Dance, 2009Oil on canvas, 24 x 24 inches

One of a series of seven dance studies completed in 2009 in 2 sessions with live music. Done at the behest of the dancer and celebrating her recent wedding, they were painted in oil, almost sketch fashion, as the music played and the dancer immersed herself in the music and her own reverie. Almost a “portrait,” this piece was done spontaneously and without revision.





Opposite: King Tut, So What?, 1978Oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches

This complex, layered oil was done in New York specifically for a group show at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall. The ephemeral owl and conjoined beret-topped creature confront a large but obscured figure to coax a lovely nude silhouette from negative space. The piece was painted on the floor and turned (or circumnavigated by the artist) to “refresh” the point of view; thus the sprightly bird perched akimbo on a second obscured figure. But a foreground fence – an 1848 structure bordering the studio - defines the perspective. Revised and overpainted, this work took time – and time again – to finally complete.





Opposite: Plaster, 1975Mixed media on paper, 18 x 24 inches

The boys were in the Brooklyn studio a lot and brought the zany “yellowness” of childhood with them. Plaster, junk, paint, wood emerged as Rube Goldberg contraptions, collages and just plain messes while the hours flew by. (Today one’s a photographer and another’s doing extraordinary leather work, while the mentor paints on.)





Opposite: Barking, 1988Dry pastel on paper, 30 x 22 1/2 inches

This study in patterning was drawn from a live model during a happy summer visit to Lockhaven Pennsylvania in 1988. She was the only thing moving in the room, captured here in rare moment of erotic endeavor like a moth lighting momentarily on a hot bulb. The contrast between her smooth whiteness and the colorful and multi-patterned surfaces caught the artist’s eye - all as the model’s mutt “Frankie”barked for attention outside.





Opposite: Missy N’ Me, 2002Oil on canvas, 46 x 46 inches

The constant ebb and flow of the past one day evoked memories of afavorite childhood pony, Missy. Riding in Pennsylvania farmland sunlight often abuzz with "vampire" flies, the artist trained Missy – and she taught him things he still values today. The work was done years later in the Albuquerque studio, and some consider it, rightly, a trademark RBG painting.





Opposite: Veil, 2009Watercolor and pastel on paper, 30 x 22 inches

The artist’s favorite set of Sumi brushes first burnished bare canvas to establish the live model’s background space in a wash of markings. She initially receded altogether - but emerged later, and was promptly veiled in a watercolor and dry pastel pastiche to merge the figure with the space. Creating, it seems, a delicate and sensuous balance.





Opposite: 5-7-79, 1979Mixed media on paper, 24 3/8 x 18 1/8 inches

One of the few “Greene Women” pieces not drawn from a live model but solely from inspiration. The figure is notably contained -- boxed -- and floats in sort of a symbolist, infinite cosmos. The Pterodactyl just flew into the negative space.





Opposite: Dug’s Girl, 1970Oil on canvas, 72 x 72 inches

Ed Dugmore, an artist and fellow habitué of Eric’s, then at Pratt and now painting in San Francisco, didn’t even have a girlfriend – at least not this one -at the time! This considerable oil was titled as a serious tribute to Dugmore’s style and point-of-view. And he loved the piece. This work (a favorite of the curator) exemplifies an occasional theme placing a few of the “Greene Women” in tightly enclosed spaces. The live model for this painting was no Twiggy to be sure - but it took considerable imagination, enlargement then compacting to get the expressively packaged image you see here.“Imposing” comes to mind….





Opposite: Boys’ Pond, 1978 (2002)Dry pastel on paper, 19 x 25 inches

The artist’s 3 boys naturally impacted his work over the years, characteristic of the expressionist conveying feeling as much as picture and impression. “The Pond” was a favorite, here drawn in the Eastern spring sunshine after a hard freeze that wreaked havoc on the tired little pier. (An element was added in 2002, when the boys were two dozen years beyond childhood.)





Opposite: Pigtails, 1972Oil on paper with collage, 26 x 20 inches

One live model, constantly changing position, and two passionately entwined figures emerge. This collage was rotated on the easel periodically as elements were added, then enclosed with collage to alter the space (The artist does this routinely, often resulting in a This End Up? ambiguity.) This and other pieces of the type have been characterized by some critics as the artist’s “Six-Chapters-in-One” approach to his work.





Opposite: Birthmark, 1998Dry pastel on paper, 20 ¾ x 14 7/8 inches

Drawn from a live model at the 212 Broadway studio, both her hennaed hairand her natural gracefulness were extraordinary and remain memorable. This piece is one from a series of six or seven sittings. Elements or background often evolve after a session – but not on this piece. Effects like the stippling in this drawing are often added as the work evolves – “relaxations” from intense concentration on the main subject.







Public and Private Collections and Exhibitions:

The Brooklyn MuseumThe Albuquerque Art & History Museum

The Pratt Institute GalleryThe 141 Prince St. Gallery, NY

Queens College, NYThe Studio School, NYC

The Center for Contemporary Art – Santa FeThe Wiford & Vogt Gallery – Santa Fe

The Dartmouth St. Gallery - AlbuquerqueChase Manhattan Bank

Union Carbide



Copyright 2010 Ralph Beery Greene, Jr and The Packard Agency, LLC. All Rights Reserved.Photography by Pat Berrett. Design by The Packard Agency. Printing by Don Mickey

Designs.



The Packard Agency, LLC38 Calle del Sol Placitas, NM 87043 919.599.0503



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