Editor's note: The Frederick R. Weisman Museum
of Art provided source material to Resource Library Magazine for
the following article or essay. If you have questions or comments regarding
the source material, please contact the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art
directly through either this phone number or web address:
Graham Nickson: Dual Natures
January 12 - March 29, 2002
The Frederick R. Weisman
Museum of Art at Pepperdine University in Malibu will present Graham
Nickson: Dual Natures from January 12 through March 29, 2002. This exhibition
of 11 monumental 
paintings and
10 charcoal drawings charts his involvement with bathers over a long career.
Works from the 1970s and early 1980s are simple and serene, often featuring
a solitary figure set against sky and sea. Over the years, Nickson's compositions
have become more colorful and complicated. In the 1980s and 1990s, he produced
ambitious multi-figure compositions painted in unusual, vibrant colors --
sometimes combining red or yellow skies with blue clouds. (left:
Bather with Outstretched Arms II, 1983, Lascaux acrylic on canvas,
108 x 144 inches)
By drawing and painting bathers, Nickson places himself
within a tradition of rendering the human form that began in the Renaissance
and continues up to Cézanne, Matisse and Picasso. He acknowledges
both old and new approaches by combining accurate drawing reminiscent of
the Old Masters with an imaginative, almost visionary color inspired by
modern art.
The charcoal drawings on view reveal how the artist constructs
these complex, theatrical images. While some drawings were made as independent
works, many are studies for paintings. His whole approach is based on the
practice of drawing, which he sees as a creative way to interpret the visible
world. As a teacher, Nickson is responsible for starting the New York Studio
School's now legendary Drawing Marathons. Held twice a year, they allow
students to immerse themselves in drawing 12 hours a day for two weeks.
These classes have earned him national regard as a highly influential teacher
of figurative art.
Graham Nickson: Dual Natures was initiated by the Frye
Art Museum, Seattle, with the support of the Robert Lehman Foundation, Inc.
The national tour is circulated by Pamela Auchincloss Arts Management, New
York. Funding is provided by the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation.
Graham Nickson: Dual Natures
by Michael Zakian, Ph.D., Director, Frederick R. Weisman
Museum of Art
For more than twenty years, New York artist Graham Nickson
has focused on a quintessential Southern California subject: bathers at
the beach. His large, often mural-size paintings-some measure ten by sixteen
feet-depict people engaged in the cultural rituals of relaxing at the shore.
Some figures strike rigid poses. Others appear to perform calisthenics as
they bend to change or dry themselves. In Nickson's imagination, the beach
is a stage and bathers are actors in a grand drama of recreation and self-conscious
display.
Nickson began painting bathers
in the late 1970s, selecting a theme with a long history in Western art.
In order to breathe new life into a familiar subject, he explores novel
poses, depicting figures who stand stiff and upright or who indulge in acrobatic
postures. While most artists present the beach as an Eden-like realm of
comfort and leisure, Nickson reveals a more complicated world. His figures
seem hard at work, as if recreation was a difficult ordeal. While they partake
of physical pleasures, they also acknowledge the inevitable Fall from Grace
and the ensuing burdens of guilt, shame and labor. His bathers bear the
weight of their indulgence. (left: Red Shirt, 1978-1981, Lascaux
acrylic on canvas, 109 x 138 inches)
The artist is dedicated to the practice of drawing, which
he sees as a creative way of interpreting the visible world. He draws constantly
from life, developing studies that often serve as the basis for later paintings.
Preferring to work in charcoal, he produces a broad range of pictorial effects
using a medium limited black and white.
Graham Nickson was born in 1946 in England. He studied
at The Royal College of Art in London from 1969 to 1972 and won the prestigious
Prix de Rome for 1972-74, which allowed him to paint in Italy. In 1976 he
moved permanently to the United States. He has taught at the New York Studio
School in Greenwich Village since 1981 and became Dean in 1988, a position
he holds today. He began the Drawing Marathon, a bi-annual course that has
students draw intensively for two weeks. These classes have earned him national
regard as a highly influential teacher of figurative art. His art is in
the permanent collection of many public institutions, including the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Albright-Knox
Museum of Art.
Read more articles and essays concerning this institutional
source by visiting the sub-index page for the Frederick
R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University in Resource Library Magazine.
Search for more
articles and essays on American art in Resource Library. See America's Distinguished Artists for biographical information on historic artists.
This page was originally published in 2002 in Resource
Library Magazine. Please see Resource Library's Overview section for
more information. Rev. 12/29/11
Copyright 2011 Traditional
Fine Arts Organization, Inc., an Arizona nonprofit
corporation. All rights reserved.
Links to sources of information outside of our web site
are provided only as referrals for your further consideration. Please use
due diligence in judging the quality of information contained in these and
all other web sites. Information from linked sources may be inaccurate or
out of date. TFAO neither recommends or endorses these referenced organizations.
Although TFAO includes links to other web sites, it takes no responsibility
for the content or information contained on those other sites, nor exerts
any editorial or other control over them. For more information on evaluating
web pages see TFAO's General Resources
section in Online Resources for Collectors and Students of Art History.