March 23 - April 27, 2024
From Valley House Gallery:
“Henry Finkelstein (American, Born 1958) earned his BFA from Cooper Union in New York in 1980, followed by his MFA in painting from Yale University School of Art in 1983. Finkelstein was awarded a Fulbright Grant to study painting in Italy in 1983-1984. A residency at Rochefort-en-Terre in Brittany, France, in 1992, and again in 2000, introduced him to this region where he returns each summer to paint from direct observation. In 1994, he was elected a National Academician. Finkelstein has taught painting and drawing in New York City since 1996. This is Henry Finkelstein’s eleventh solo exhibition at Valley House Gallery since 2002.
About his paintings in this exhibition, Henry Finkelstein says:
“These are paintings I did mostly in France over the last two years; first in the town of Sainte-Alvere in the Perigord, and more recently in Northern Brittany near Pommerit-le-Vicomte. I like to paint spaces that have some up and down shifts in them, not mountainous exactly, but not flat plains either. I also like if there’s something old in them which is part of what I love about working in France. They have trees and churches that are sometimes 500 years old, and well-worn paths that have been used for centuries. The human trace on the landscape is important to me.”
“The color and space of a motif sparks a sentiment in me. It’s a feeling for the place I’m in, but it’s also a sort of abstract feeling stirred by my activity in the landscape. I find rhythms through drawing, and this leads to a color statement. I try to remain focused on my original sentiment as I paint, but I probably couldn’t describe it in words. It’s something I feel from the light. I love Bonnard’s phrase “A sentiment that holds the wall.””
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