Press release from Arnold Mesches:
Selections From Anomie 1492-2001

Wesleyan University's Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery will present Arnold Mesches: Selections From Anomie 1492-2001 on view from January 25-March 3. An opening reception will be held on Friday, January 25, 5-7 p.m. The artist will speak about his work at 5:30 p.m.

Since late 1989 Arnold Mesches has been making an imaginary timeline--a series of 48 paintings and collages that include overt and subtle references to the overlapping histories and multi-cultural aspects of life on our planet. The emotionally charged and politically evocative series demonstrates the artistās extraordinary formal abilities including his bold and painterly brushstrokes, combined with a masterful sense of color and composition that add intensity to the disparate subject matter.

In the 17 large and lushly painted figurative works in this exhibition, Mesches conveys the profound jolt that life has in store for those who too closely follow the painful trials of humanity. Nothing is overt; images move and mingle freely through time, finding their place conceptually, independent of actualities. Several works presage and resonate with September 11 and its aftermath; all of them reflect the concept of Anomie which is socially defined as a state of society in which normative standards of conduct and belief are weak or lacking. "Last fall's tragedy, triggered both by madness and a stricken world," said curator Nina Felshin, "makes this exhibition all the more timely, affirming George Santayana's words that -- those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.ā" The paintings, presented chronologically by the event that is portrayed, do not depict a realistic narrative but are visually poetic and metaphoric-a symbolic re-presentation of historic occurrences. Rising above Columbus's ships in Anomie 1492: Negative Spaces is a crowded hillside, a cultural graveyard, comprised of once great art objects compiled from various periods and cultures, commercially reduced to mediocre lawn sculpture. And, similarly, once massive sculptural pieces depicting prominent Soviet and pre-Soviet leaders wind up as deflated knickknacks in a 1994 Italian flea market together with mass produced copies of Michelangeloās David, and other statues including Princess Di, a crowing cock, and a preaching Jesus Christ.

The last work in the series "Anomie 2001: Coney, painted in 1997" is a prophetically ironic and ultimately terrifying image that evokes a metamorphosis of that turn-of-the-century place of dreams into a place of dread and darkness. Death masks, monsters, and rider-less horses (a recurrent image in his work) proliferate. Coney Island rides, airplanes, and parachutes are the face of contemporary war and Meschesā Cyclops is as ominous as the one-eyed monster of Greek mythology.

The first and last paintings bookend the 15 others in this exhibition. Each depicts tumultuous historical events and related human folly. Many address the 20th-century, striking workers during the Great Depression, the crash of 1929, endless political conquests and wars, immigration, and the Cold War. Pre-20th-century themes focus on the discovery of the Americas, the invention of steel, and the Spanish-American War. Meschesā Anomie paintings are a powerful summation of the artistās views on the worldās madness and inconsistencies, beauty and ugliness, evil and justice, life over death.

The self-taught Mesches was born in the Bronx in 1923. His work is represented in the following public collections: National Gallery (Washington, D.C.); Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City); Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo, New York); High Museum (Atlanta); Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden (Washington, D.C.); Los Angeles County Museum of Art; San Diego Museum of Art; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Pushkin Museum (Moscow); Castellani Art Museum (Niagara Falls, New York); Brooklyn Museum of Art; plus many other private, institutional, and corporate collections. He has won numerous awards and grants and has been a teacher since 1946, currently at New York University.

This presentation, Mesches 99th solo exhibition, is curated by Zilkha's Curator of Exhibitions Nina Felshin. Admission is free. For more information, please call (860) 685-2684.

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