| There
is a certain prescience to Richard Shelton's newest paintings in this dot
gone/ corporate meltdown climate, especially timely since he has been tearing
off the faŤade of corporate America for a couple of decades now. Where his
last series of "Corporate Men" at frumkin/ duval gallery pictured single
men in rumpled business suits in isolated abstract space, in this new series
he portrays them in the corporate environment. Several large narrative paintings
also have allegorical readings that add rich layers of meaning. Among the
latter is After the Meeting in which a naked young woman sits on a rumpled
sheet in a hotel room facing the viewer. Her legs are slightly parted, and
although her body is in full frontal position, she gazes off to the side
in a reverie that excludes the spectators. A light illuminating a small
romantic painting on the wall behind cascades over her like a halo. Shelton
says he was thinking about a system that perceives beauty as a prize to
be won or an award to be given. The woman in the painting has been objectified
and presented to these men as reward for loyal service to the company. In
response to the "Rococo 90s where excess in all forms became an artistic
imperative", Shelton has responded with Neo-Classical formalism -- radical
simplicity of composition and an obsession with form. The influence of Jacques-Louis
David, particularly Oath of the Horati on this work, shows in the contrast
between the male corporate figures who symbolize stoic duty and the female
who represents the fantasy of love. In his series of multi-panel paintings,
one or more figures occupy a single panel while the other panels are gradations
of subtly underpainted tones. The spaces are purposely ambiguous although
the palette suggests the architecture of the corporate environment. The
paintings are loaded with contrasts. In Avant-Garde / Avant Guardian a well
dressed CEO type stands against a gray background in one panel while in
the other a casually dressed bohemian couple parade across a brightly colored
panel. Also included are a series of acrylic paintings on the pages of the
ledgers kept by the artist's grandfather and some small watercolor studies
for paintings. Richard Shelton is a Los Angeles artist whose work is in
the permanent collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. His
paintings were included in the traveling exhibition "Representing L.A. originating
at the Frye Museum in Seattle.. His work will be included next year in "Whiteness",
an exhibition curated by Tyler Stallings that will preview at the Laguna
Art Museum. |
