Tag: winslow homer

James Welling at David Zwirner Gallery

Double-takes are the norm at James Welling’s show of recent photographs at David Zwirner Gallery as the iconic West coast artist continues to make images that take time to understand.  In this photograph of rocks and the sea in Prouts Neck, Maine, printed in UV curable ink that adds to the images’ rich color, Welling recalls Winslow Homer’s and subsequently, John Marin’s paintings in this historic spot.  The ocean is placid in Welling’s rendering but the overlaid patches of color that he adds create a visual disturbance that mimics the crashing waves and stormy surf that Homer captured.  Interested in the patterning created as he cleaned off paint rollers on newspaper for another project, Welling started adding these ‘prints’ to his photos, altering areas of color to create complex images that emphasize the malleability of photography (On view in Chelsea through Feb 10th).

James Welling, Prouts Neck near Winslow Homer’s Studio, UV-curable ink on Dibond aluminum, 42 x 63 inches, 2015/2023.

Hilary Harkness at PPOW Gallery

In the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s audio guide to its famous 1866 painting ‘Prisoners from the Front’ by Winslow Homer, the Union general Francis Channing Barlow is described as a ‘restrained Northern Puritan’ type vs the ‘dashing and impulsive’ Southerner at center. In Hilary Harkness’ version of the painting, seen here and now on view at PPOW Gallery, Barlow is nothing of the sort.  In a series of paintings that Harkness created over a four-year period from 2019 to 2023, she reimagines Barlow as a trans man, in love with Charles, the Black Union solider pictured here (a major alteration from the original), who fights with such single-minded fervor for the Union that he pauses only briefly (and secretly) during battle to give birth to Charles’ child.  Told through meticulously detailed paintings that picture Charles’ heroics while documenting the racial injustices and oppression of Confederate culture, Harkness’ narrative is both absorbing and unforgettable.  (On view through Nov 11th in Tribeca).

Hilary Harkness, Prisoners from the Front (1866), commissioned by Arabella Freeman, oil on panel, 12 x 19 inches, 2019.