BARRY ORETSKY
For sheer descriptive power, Barry Oretsky’s paintings are hard to beat. More than that, their power of perception is in the service of acute social observation, verging on revelation. His pictures have the force of a paradox. He describes the physical reality of the work with such intensity and blazing clarity that it becomes peculiarly “metaphysical” – uncanny. In other words, what seems like a coolly realized, casually observed, all too familiar scene, is subliminally charged – unexpectedly fraught with odd emotional significance, which, it turns out, was latent in the scene all along. For all the apparent neutrality and detachment of his observation, Oretsky’s pictures communicate a sense of impacted desperation… Indeed, his work can be taken as contemporary emblematic illustrations of Thoreau’s famous observation that the mass of men live lives of quiet desperation.
All of Oretsky’s pictures are elegantly composed, as if to counteract the banality of the scene, fraught with tragic potential.
Oretsky is acutely aware of the difference between the world of the work of art and that of the spectator. There is a peculiar desperation to these succinct, intransigent pictures that adds to their sternness. They are masterpieces of their kind.
The human factor haunts all of Oretsky’s images. The poignancy of a scene, which is a commonplace one in modern life, is brought under control by the sharpness of Oretsky’s description – the acute attention he pays to every colouristic and textural detail of brick in the wall and clothing of the figures – and his general sense of the power with which inanimate objects are perceptually given. But the humanness of the scene bursts forth, all the more strongly by reason of the tough-minded realism of the execution.
For all their extroverted realism, Oretsky’s paintings are profoundly introverted. They are major contributions to the vision of the human condition implicit in the best American realism.
DONALD KUSPIT, 2001
BORN: Owen Sound, Ontario 1946
EDUCATION:
1982; YorkUniversity, Visual Arts Specialist Certificate
1970-72; College of Education, Permanent Teacher’s Certificate
1965-66; St. Martin’s School of Art, London
1965-1961; CentralTechnicalSchool, Commercial Art Diploma
AWARDS
2004- RoyalCanadianAcademy of Art
1965- Canadian Association for Education Through Art
1965- Eagle Pencil Classical Drawing Scholarship
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBTIONS
2006- “Aspects, Photographs”, Gallery One, Toronto, Ontario
2006- Plus One Gallery, London
2005- Gallery One, TorontoON
2004- Buschlen Mowatt Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2004 - Gallery One, Toronto, Ontario
2003- Buschlen Mowatt Gallery, VancouverBC
2003- Buschlen Mowatt Gallery, Palm DesertCA, USA
2001- Gallery One, TorontoON
2000- Buschlen Mowatt Gallery, VancouverBC
1998- Buschlen Mowatt Gallery, VancouverBC
1996- Robert Langen Gallery, Wilfrid Laurier University, Ontario
1995- Drabinsky & Friedland Galleries, Toronto, Ontario
1992- Drabinsky & Friedland Galleries, TorontoOntario
1989- Schillay & Rehs, Inc., New York, New York
1987- Baux Xi Gallery TorontoOntario
1986- BethTzedecMuseum, Toronto, Ontario
1970- Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
1968- Pollock Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
GROUP EXHIBTIONS
2007- “Los Angeles Art Show”, Rehs Galleries, Inc.
2006- “Los Angeles Art Show”, Rehs Galleries, Inc.
2006- “Exactitude III”, Plus One Gallery, London
2005- “Los Angeles Art Show”, Rehs Galleries, Inc.
2005- 2004- Emma Butler Gallery, St. John’s, NB
2004- Galerie de Bellefeuille, Montreal, PQ
2003- Toronto International Art Show
2002- Buschlen Mowatt Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2001- Toronto International Art Show
2000- Buschlen Mowatt Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2001- Toronto International Art Show
1997- Buschlen Mowatt Gallery, VancouverBC
1994- Drabinsky Gallery, TorontoON
1994- “Fifth Avenue Art & Antique Show”, Rehs Galleries, Inc. New York
1993- “Fifth Avenue Art & Antique Show”, Rehs Galleries, Inc. Georgia
1993- “Fifth Avenue Art & Antique Show”, Rehs Galleries, Inc. New York
1993- James M Haney Gallery, Rehs Galleries, Inc., , AmarilloTX
1992- “Miami International ’92”, MiamiFL
1991- “Boston International ’91”, Rehs Galleries, Inc., BostonMA
1991- Odon Wagner Gallery, ScottsdaleAZ
1986- Baux Xi Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
1983- Moos Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
1980- Nancy Poole Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
1967- Canadian Biennale, Winnipeg, MA
COLLECTIONS
TSN, The Sports Network, TorontoON
Quinn International, Argau, Switzerland
Child Help Fund, WashingtonDC
Solomon & Solomon, Barristers, Toronto On
The Gordon Group, Toronto On
Tara Investments, Grand CaymanIslands
Fallbrook Holdings, TorontoON
Reliable Fur Company, TorontoON
Jason Meat Co., St. LouisMO
Sanwa BK, New YorkNY
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
1970-73: NewtonbrookSecondary School, North York Board of Education, Toronto, Ont.
1973-76: HaifaUniversity, Haifa, Israel
1976-86: ThornhillSecondary School, Department Head of Art
WilfridLaurierUniversity
1997- 98: Photo Educators Conference, Ryerson Polytechnical Institute
STATEMENT
"To my mind, a major distinction between realism and romance is the presentation of allegories of life. A romantic sensibility lets an artist choose images that are filled with allegory. I certainly am more than happy to have people see a romantic sensibility in my work. That immediately separates my art from dry factuality. But there are limitations to a romantic view of life and art. Not all romantic art is filled with sweetness and light.
"I pursue images. I will shoot thousands of slides searching for those special images in terms of exploration and meditation. They hold visual elements and metaphors inherent in the image. I have found that I take pictures without consciously composing the subject matter. When I get back to my studio, the selection process involves sitting down with a slide projector and spending time with each image to become acquainted with its obvious and less obvious details.
"Once I have made the commitment to an image and decided upon my interpretation, the follow-through for me is craftsmanship. A painting is the sum total of its elements. The painter can subdue, enhance or eliminate. I maintain firm compositional control by relying on precise preliminary sketches.
"You and I can see a great painting and come to feel truth expressed. We may not have words to describe the achievement, but we sense it wordlessly. Art lies outside the artist – approachable yet other. With that humbling thought in mind, I revert in my daydreams and strategies to my own work. Nevertheless, I’m in charge and I work with all the elements of that great otherness which is art." I know I’m finished when I’m satisfied that I have resolved all the elements. There is a sense of completion. It’s done! To overpaint and continue to make choices is an unwillingness to accept a finality. I have learned intuitively that it is over."
Plus One Gallery . 89-91 Pimlico Road, LondonSW1W 8PH . Tel: 020 7730 7656
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