Art Lies, Volume 23, Summer 1999 Page: 51
60 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Daniel Dove
RUDOLPH POISSANT GALLERY
HOUSTON
by Christopher Schade
Austin based artist Daniel Dove's recent show
at Rudolph Poissant Gallery was an intense
exploration into the current possibilities of
representational painting. Dove struggles to
create a real and lasting experience while
conveying the uncertainty of his project in our
post-historical time.
Of Dove's eight oil on canvas paintings,
six are 20x24 inches while the other two larger
canvases are 60x66 and 58x78 inches. Beyond
this dimensional difference, these two groups
of paintings are dissimilar in palette, execu-
tion, content, and intent.
The six smaller pieces have been painted
from photographs while the other two, from
life. By dividing his attention, Dove explores
different aspects of perception while implicitly
questioning the authority of either. He
employed this strategy last year for the first
time in Austin's Tarrytown Gallery.
This time the photo-based works are
more effective. Last year the paintings were
made from photographs Dove took of a scene,
whereas these are painted from photographs
he's taken of scenes reflected in a TV screen or
window. This doubled distance from reality
reveals Dove's skepticism about straightfor-
ward representation by delaying recognition
through the bending and blurring of his
subject. And yet, the anxiety of this realization
is a depicted one both in concept (doubled
distance) and effect (warping). Understanding
this, the pieces have little mystery to hold you.
Their impact is also mediated by their
heavy debt to German painter Gerhardt
Richter. Since the early 1960's, Richter has
used two bodies of work (representational
paintings from photographs and abstractions)
while qualifying his image clarity by
emulating the distortions of photography.
Even Dove's palate of olive greens, browns
and his thin film-like application of paint
echo Richter's.
Completely different are Doves two
larger paintings, Wedding Portrait and Large
Portrait, which are painted from direct obser-
vation. Both are beautifully realized with
brushstrokes varying from thin to thick that
follow the forms of the depicted objects and
create real physical mass. The light and space
in each of these is utterly believable.
Wedding Portrait is of a woman in an
elaborate wedding gown sitting facing us. Seen
at a three-quarters angle from above, it has a
contained frontal space that directs all atten-Daniel Dove
Wedding Portrait, 1998
Oil on canvas, 60" x 66"
Photo: Courtesy of Rudolph Poissant Gallerytion up the floorboards and the intricacies of
the gown to the oblique gaze of the sitter. The
composition is firmly triangular and although
dazzling technically there is little surprise here
in formal construction or subject matter. It's
familiarity as a historical construct and Dove's
personal investment (he's painted portraits of
friends for years) might explain the assurance
of the image.
Less predictable is Large Portrait. As
viewers, we are standing over a woman lying
on a couch that diagonally occupies the lower
half of the painting. The woman is facing
away from us and is almost completely
covered in cushions while light from the
outside windows streams onto the white walls
and the hardwood floors that make up the
upper half of the canvas.
In this image Dove has fused together
the conceptual and applied elements of the
other paintings: his uncertainty about repre-
sentation and his conviction in painting from
life while reconfiguring the space to make our
relationship to the woman unsure. He has
avoided the systematic nature of the six
smaller paintings and the overly conventional
structure of Wedding Portrait. Instead of
depicting the doubt through a system,
concept or style he has integrated it into the
actual space of the painting transferring his
unease to us.
And if there's any way to save representa-
tional painting from the charge of archaism
this is it. Relevance that is meaningful, unlike
the seduction of fashion, is always something
that makes you feel deeply. Dove's Large
Portrait more than any of his other images is
dependent on the viewer for its completion.
Its meaning lies not in an idea or in its
autonomy but in its relationship to us. As
such, it is a much more fragile, mysterious
and compelling image. OARTLIES SUMMER 1999 51
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Lightman, Victoria H. Art Lies, Volume 23, Summer 1999, periodical, 1999; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth228053/m1/53/?q=%22Bryant%2C+John%22: accessed May 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .