Conley Harris : Lyrical Tableaux
Part of the NEW ENGLAND CURRENTS Series
December 5, 2007 - January 13, 2008
Gallery Talk, with Reception following Sunday, January 13, 3 p.m.
The Danforth Museum of Art is pleased to present Lyrical Tableaux, an exhibition of 20 paintings by Boston artist Conley Harris. On view in the Swartz Family Gallery from December 5th through January 13th as part of the New England Currents series, these lush, painterly works reveal Harris’ interest in Persian and Indian miniatures. On Sunday, January 13th, the artist will speak on his work in the gallery at 3 p.m. The gallery talk will be followed by a brief reception. All are welcome to attend.
About the Artist
Beginning his career as chief scene painter for the Santa Fe Opera Company during the 1970’s, Conley Harris later became known for his lyrical landscapes of New England and the American West, made as the result of his trips throughout the United States. Upon traveling to the Japan and India, his interest in the art and culture of other countries was awakened. Harris began collecting antique Rajput, Pahari and Mughal drawings used as preparatory studies for miniature paintings, and eventually used them as inspiration for his own work.
Fueled by trips to the provinces of India, Harris has focused his concentration on the drawings from the 17th and 18th century courts and kingdoms of the Indian sub continent. His knowledge of this period has been further supplemented by the study of other collections. Working with curators at the Harvard University Art Museums, and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Harris has been able to study some of the finest examples of Persian and Indian drawings at close hand. MFA Curator Woodman Taylor considers Conley Harris “unique” in his study of drawings. Commenting the artist’s creative, yet scholarly approach to understanding work from another culture, Joan Cummins, Asian Art Curator at the Brooklyn Museum has commented, “Conley Harris has celebrated, reinterpreted, and personalized the diverse forms of Indian miniature paintings and drawings.”
About the Exhibit
Theatrical sensibility provides these paintings with and intensity and power that transcend time and place. Using the lively color and dramatic staging of Hindu court narrative as a springboard, Harris gives voice to his own passion for a lush, imagined landscape. By incorporating the conventional poses and gestures of Hindu deities and dancers into this exploration of landscape, Harris animates formal gardens of the distant past — bringing them into the present for our consideration.
The Blue Shiva, the princely poet and the escort monkey warrior have been liberated to perform on a contemporary, western stage. In Deep Twilight, Golden Evening, and Ravishing Sunset, Harris paints the same subject meditating in a gorge. The iridescence of the evening sky competes with the saturated color robe worn by The Archer. Appropriated patterns of a paisley print floats over the heads of some of his characters like clouds. The ghosts of some figures emerge as a delicate line drawings set into a thick impasto of paint.
“For me, drawing has always played a major role,” Harris observes. While paying sincere homage to 17th century Indian artists who kept unfinished drawings as reference for new works, Harris makes a significant break with this tradition when he layers and repeats drawings into a finished painting. At a time when installation and photography are sometimes considered at the forefront of artistic exploration, the painter forces a contemporary viewer to consider the intrinsic importance of drawing in these complex, yet elegant, compositions.
Bright Crimson Skies, 2006
oil on canvas,
56 x 56 inches
Courtesy of the Artist
The Archer, 2006
oil on canvas,
56 x 44 inches
Courtesy of the Artist
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