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Intimisms

Intimisms

Intimisms

Intimisms

Intimisms

Intimisms

Intimisms

Intimisms

Intimisms

Intimisms

, FAIRFIELD PORTER

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

, JOHN MCALLISTER

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

, JANE FREILICHER

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

, LUCIAN FREUD

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

, LOUIS EILSHEMIUS (1864-1941)

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

, ALICE NEEL

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

, ALICE NEEL

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

, JOAN BROWN

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

, SYLVIA SLEIGH

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

, SYLVIA SLEIGH

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

, SANGRAM MAJUMDAR

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

, JORDAN CASTEEL

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

, RIDLEY HOWARD

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

, RIDLEY HOWARD

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

, RIDLEY HOWARD

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

, HENRY TAYLOR

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

, HEIDI HOWARD

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

, BENJAMIN DEGEN

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

, ANNA GLANTZ

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

, ANNA GLANTZ

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

, HEATHER GUERTIN

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

, SUSANNA  COFFEY

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

, ALIZA NISENBAUM

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

, ALIZA NISENBAUM

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

, HOPE GANGLOFF

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

, GAHEE PARK

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

, GIORDANNE SALLEY

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

, GIORDANNE SALLEY

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

, PATRICIA TREIB

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

, JENNIFER PACKER

JENNIFER PACKER
April
2016
Oil on canvas
28 x 16 in.
 

, ELLEN ALTFEST

ELLEN ALTFEST
Untitled
2014
Pencil on paper
4 3/8 3 1/8 in. 

Press Release

PR 1

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 Nisenbuam: 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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