Art and the City: attention-grabbing works exude emotion
Art Business News, August, 2004 by Debbie Hagan
Continued from page 1.
Striking a Romantic Chord
Some art buyers prefer cityscapes that transport them to a romantic time or an idyllic place.
Amanda Mei, senior sales representative for Cao Yong Editions in Rowland Heights, Calif., tells a poignant story about an older woman who bought a Cao Yong painting. Her husband had recently died, and she saw one of Yong's paintings in a gallery window. The image was of a restaurant where she and her husband had dined on their honeymoon. According to Mei, the woman entered the gallery and asked about the price, which was more than she could afford. She left, but she couldn't stop thinking about the painting. Soon, she returned with the money. She told the gallery owner that she came up with the money by selling her husband's clothes and belongings. She said that he wanted her to have it, and now he was buying it for her.
Mei says that she hears many romantic stories involving Yong's work. His work strikes that kind of chord through his use of details. "He'll spend three days on a spot the size of a pinkie," she says. He creates facial expressions, elaborate costumes, architectural nuances, and striking color contrasts.
His images of Venice--one of the most romantic cities in the world--are his most popular. Several of his Venice giclee prints have sold out.
"A lot of people who buy Cao's work are middle-aged," says Mei. "Maybe they honeymooned in Venice, and his work brings back memories. That's the comment I usually get from buyers."
Place is the primary visual element, but then viewers see his tiny people and this hits home with them--they can relate. For instance, in his image "Santa Monica," Cao paints an evening street festival with 200 figures--some eating, some shopping, some playing--and each face reflects a specific emotion.
"Wow, I wish I was there when Santa Monica was like that," Mei says about the feeling viewers take away from this painting.
Achieving Nostalgia
But do cityscapes need to be recognizable or can they be composites of several places or complete fantasies?
"The reason why cityscapes sell is because of a certain nostalgic aspect of being in a certain city. People like to renew that experience," says Chappell of Editions Limited.
Venice, Paris and New York City are favorite cityscapes, in part, because millions of people have been there--often on special trips, such as honeymoons. Then the art becomes a souvenir of that experience.
"Everyone has his own image of a city--his own image of the Eiffel Tower," says Vladimir Derkach, a Ukrainian artist who now lives in Santa Monica. He started off as an industrial cityscape painter. Today he paints scenes of popular cities, which he describes as more soothing and relaxing. He might paint Venice Beach with sidewalk cafes and umbrella tables with the ocean in the background, strolling musicians on the sidewalks, and maybe a setting sun. He wants to give art buyers peaceful, soothing views.
Derkach describes his painting style as having "few details--just a remembrance." This enables him to keep the images breezy and uplifting. Still, one can't help but recognize the memorable skylines of Paris, Venice, Chicago and Moscow.
Personally, Chappell prefers cityscapes that are more generic--a scene that could be New York or Cleveland or Paris. The broader the image, the more people can visualize themselves in it.
Such is true of Jessen's popular rainy night images with people on city streets holding umbrellas. "If you read the shorthand, it is New York City," Chappell says, "but it could be any place. It's really the feeling of being in a big city in a rain storm."
In contrast, Aleah Koury's paintings aren't regular cities at all. "I have used a formal landscape theory for foreground, middle-ground, and background to create abstracted cityscapes in a series called 'Organic Geometry,'" says Koury. "This work plays off the horizon line with jutting and interrupting shapes suggesting buildings, trees and telephone poles." But even in abstraction, Koury conveys the sense of being surrounded by tall buildings and set amidst the hustle and bustle of urban life.
"The artist gets into your skin, and you get into his skin, as to what these cities are about," says Chappell. "In the end, this is what makes a cityscape so compelling."
For reprints of this article, contact La Tonya Brumitt@ (314) 824-5516, labrumitt@pfpublish.com
SOURCES
* Chalk & Vermilion, (800) 877-2250
* Edition Limited, (800) 228-0928
* El Prado Gallery (928) 282-7390
* Kennebeck Editions, (888) 786-8814
* Cao Yong Editions, (626) 839-1686
* Profile Art, (905) 722-6700
* Thomas McKnight's Polia Press, LLC, (800) 805-9665 www.polia-press.om
* Vladimir Derkach, (310) 451-2818
COPYRIGHT 2004 Pfingsten Publishing, LLC
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group
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