The Powell's book launch for The UNTOLD GAZE

I had my first professional art exhibition in May of 1995. I started working at Powell's "City of Books" in May of 1995.

The famous book store and I have had a rather complicated relationship these past twenty-three years. (Twenty-three years!) And for a good percentage of that time, certainly after my art career was better established, I've been saying I need to move on; honestly, I'm a bit embarrassed that as a respected, relatively successful artist, I still have a "day job". And I know that when I do quit some day, I'll finally be forced to make myself the real driver of my career, rather than just waiting for galleries to find me... which is what I've always done. But it's an odd tethering I have to the place, matched by the connection I have with my art career. These two things, born at exactly the same time, have been the greatest constants in my life - the two imperatives - for nearly a quarter century. How will it be when I eventually let the one go...?

And now - tonight - the two come together in a way they never have before. Powell's "City of Books" is one of the most important venues in the entire country for a writer to promote or debut a new book; the Powell's book launch is pretty much legendary. Even though they usually don't grant events to expensive, privately printed, primarily pictorial publications - so many "P"s! - they were enthusiastic about giving us an event. Five of the writers who have pieces in the book - Lidia Yuknavitch, Monica Drake, Scott Sparling, Margaret Malone, and Jude Brewer - will be reading tonight. And I know it will be a wonderful, happy night. And, for me, it will also be - because of all my history with the place - a bit... surreal.

Dos caprichos de Goya - The Duchess of Alba and "La Beata", 1795

The woman represented in both of these two paintings is believed to be Rafaela Luisa Velázquez, an elderly servant - dueña - of María Cayetana de Silva, the famous 13th Duchess of Alba; Velázquez was called by the nickname "La Beata", a word that signifies an excessively religious old woman. In the first painting, she is being harassed by Duchess - easily identified by her great curling mane of raven hair - and in the second, she is taunted by the Duchess' tiny adopted daughter, María de la Luz, and the equally tiny Luis de Berganza, son of the Duchess' majordomo, Tomás de Berganza, who eventually owned both paintings.

"La duquesa de Alba y su dueña, o La Duquesa de Alba y 'la Beata'."

"'La Beata', dueña de la duquesa de Alba, con los niños, Luis Berganza y María de la Luz."

 

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Though married for twenty years - her husband, Don José Álvarez de Toledo Osorio y Gonzaga, 11th Marquis of Villafranca, jure uxoris Duke of Alba de Tormes, died at the age of thirty-nine, and she followed only six years later, at forty - the Duchess had no children of her own. But she had an adopted daughter, or goddaughter, María de la Luz - the daughter of a Cuban slave - who she was very close to. The child, affectionately called "La Negrita", was emancipated in 1796, and when the Duchess died - the little girl could not have been more than ten years old - she was left a generous sum of money in the Duchess' will, along with an annual income for the rest of her life.

The Duchess of Alba and María de la Luz, ink wash sketch by Goya, circa 1794-45.

Daphnis et Chloé - just a boy and a girl in the woods

François Gérard, circa 1824.

(Freely edited and adapted from Wikipedia)

Daphnis and Chloe (Greek: Δάφνις καὶ Χλόη) is the only known work of the 2nd century AD Greek novelist Longus. Nothing is known of the author's life, or even if that was his actual name. If it indeed was, he was possibly a freedman of some Roman family which bore the name as a cognomen. The novel was given a contemporary setting on the isle of Lesbos, when and where scholars assume the author to have lived.

Daphnis et Chloé demandant à un vieux chevrier ce que c'est que l'amour, by Lancelot-Théodore, comte de Turpin de Crissé, 1809.

It's the tale of a boy - Daphnis - and a girl - Chloe - each of whom is left abandoned - as a form of infanticide - out in the country. But a goatherd named Lamon discovers Daphnis, and a shepherd called Dryas finds Chloe. Each decides to raise the child he finds as his own. The two children grow up together, herding the flocks of their foster parents. They fall in love but, being completely naive, do not understand what to do with their feelings. Philetas, a wise old cowherd, explains to them what love is and tells them that the only cure is kissing. They do this.... Eventually, Lycaenion, a woman from the city, educates Daphnis in love-making. He decides not to test his newly acquired skill on Chloe, however, because Lycaenion tells him that Chloe "will scream and cry and lie bleeding heavily [as if murdered]." Throughout the book, Chloe is courted by suitors, two of whom - Dorcon and Lampis - attempt with varying degrees of success to abduct her. She is also carried off by raiders from a nearby city and only saved by the intervention of the god Pan. Meanwhile, Daphnis falls into a pit, gets beaten up, is abducted by pirates, and is very nearly raped. [!] In the end, the two lovers are recognized by their birth parents, get married, and live out the rest of their lives in bucolic contentment.

Konstantin Somov, 1930.

John-Étienne Chaponnière, 1828.

Paris Bordone, circa 1555-60.

Set design for the Diaghilev production of Daphnis et Chloé, by Léon Bakst, 1912.

Jehan-Georges Vibert, 1866.

Nicolas-Andre Monsiau, 1817.

Pedro Weingärtner, 1891.

Joseph-Marius Ramus, 1835.

François Boucher, 1743.

Harold Speed, 1924.

Pieter van der Werff, circa 1700.

Adriaen van der Werff, circa 1694.

Gerald Brockhurst, circa 1914.

Louis Hersent, 1842.

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, 1874.

Dominique Papety, circa 1830s-40s.

Idylle, by Camille-Félix Bellanger, 1893 (?).

Pierre Cabanel, circa 1870.

Victor Borisov-Musatov, 1901.

L'Orage, by Pierre-Auguste Cot, 1880.

Jean-Pierre Cortot, 1825.

Printemps, by Jean-Francois Millet 1865.

Maurice Denis, 1918.

Daphnis et Chloé revenant de la montagne, by Charles Gleyre, circa 1850.

The Wooing of Daphne, by Arthur Lemon, 1881.

Idylle, by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1852.

Paysage avec Daphnis et Chloé, by François-Louis Français, circa 1897.

Paire de portraits d'officiers - two paintings by Joseph-Marcellin Combette, 1794

The identities of both of these sitters is unknown, but the officer in the portrait above is dressed in a uniform of the royalist Légion de Mirabeau, a force raised in exile by the younger brother of the famous orator and leader during the early days of the French Revolution, Honoré comte Mirabeau. The regiment to which the uniform belongs is easy enough to identify as the Bourbon lily is everywhere you look; indeed, the gentleman with the striking nose portrayed here is bien fleurdelisé.

I haven't been able to identify the regiment belonging to the uniform worn in this portrait. But the two paintings look to be a pair - same format, same frame, same year of completion -  and so it seems logical that it was royalist as well.

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Joseph-Marcellin Combette (26 April 1770, Nozeroy - 21 May 1840, Poligny), French painter. He studied with the Swiss painter Jean Wyrsch at the École des Beaux-Arts in Besançon, and then traveled to Paris, where he worked in the studio of the sculptor Claude Dijoux. Having returned to the  Franche-Comté, by 1804 he was professor of drawing at the college of Poligny. He seems to have specialized in portraits, but spent much of his career on commissions for the church; he also produced some sculpture.

Painted on the back of one of the portraits.

The UNTOLD GAZE debut reception and reading at Froelick Gallery - tonight!

This evening my wonderful gallery here in Portland - Froelick Gallery - will be hosting the debut of our long-awaited book, The UNTOLD GAZE. Gigi and I are so grateful for all their support. And we also want to thank all the many, many people who have supported this project all along the way. A special thank you, also, to the Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC) for their generous financial contribution. And thank you to art writer Bob Hicks, who wrote a fantastic introduction for the book.

More than anyone or anything, we need to thank the amazing writers who joined us in this folie de l'art. We thank them for their artistry and generosity, and nearly as much for their patience; it's taken four long years to complete this labor of love. (And madness!)

Reading this evening will be Suzy Vitello, Whitney Otto, Sam Roxas-Chua, and Adam Strong.

Our authors:

Stephen Arndt, Liz Asch, Jude Brewer, Matty Byloos, Doug Chase, David Ciminello, Sean Davis, Monica Drake, Colin Farstad, Dian Greenwood, Sara Guest, Robert Hill, Lisa Kaser, Megan Kruse, Kathleen Lane, Margaret Malone, Kevin Meyer, Karen Munro, Whitney Otto, Michael Sage Ricci, Bradley K. Rosen, Sam Roxas-Chua, Stephen Rutledge, Edie Rylander, Liz Scott, Evelyn Sharenov, Tom Spanbauer, Scott Sparling, Laura Stanfill, Adam Strong, Vanessa Veselka, Suzy Vitello, Lidia Yuknavitch

And for anyone who is interested, the book is now available to order through my website... HERE!