Gandy Brodie
Birch in the Forest
c. 1965

Name: Birch in the Forest
Brand: Gandy Brodie
Price: 6500 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

Gouache and pastel on paper An artist whose work was simultaneously figurative and abstract, Brodie was praised as "one of the best painters of his generation" by art historian, Meyer Schapiro. During his lifetime, Schapiro, Leo Steinberg, Robert Rosenblum, Elaine de Kooning and Dore Ashton championed Brodie, but, in the years since his death, his work has faded from view, never gaining the recognition many feel he deserves. Perhaps the very reason why his work has been neglected for many years might now be why we should be looking at it more closely. Frank Stella is famously supposed to have said: "What you see is what you see." Brodie's images, in contrast, are not easily consummable. They require thought. They reveal themselves slowly, as image emerges from paint and subject matter merges with paint. Brodie's paintings are material in every sense of the word. He employs thick impasto; the surfaces are rough and pitted like an old brick wall. At the heart of Brodie’s worldview is a profound understanding of neglect and solitariness — his subjects include a lone gull, an astronaut floating in space, a flowerpot of red gladiolas, a bird’s nest, a thin bare tree growing on a street, a fallen tree and a tenement as solid and flat as a gravestone. In his best works, Brodie was able to coax an image right up to edge of the abyss of sentimentality and not let it fall in. Brodie’s paintings and drawings can be found in Museum collections including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Neuberger Museum of Art, and The Phillips Collection.

Creator:

Gandy Brodie (1924 - 1975, American)

Creation Year:

c. 1965

Dimensions:

Height: 23.5 in (59.69 cm)Width: 18 in (45.72 cm)

Medium:

Pastel,Gouache

Movement & Style:

Expressionist

Period:

1960-1969