Tag Archives: Laguna Art Museum

Laguna Art Museum Art Auction – Feb 7th

Bush Street 2color(1200)

Spurgeon Tower Rooftops • Joe Forkan 2013 Oil on Linen 48? x 28?

This painting from 2013 is included in the Laguna Art Museum’s upcoming Art Auction 2015, set for Feb. 7th. The week-long Art Auction 2015 preview exhibition is now on view to the public.

Print

Another addition to the Grid Work series, I used a completed observational painting as a starting point. This one is studio view in Santa Ana.

More information about the piece and the series is here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lebowski Cycle etching w/ added conté & graphite @ Laguna Art Museum Auction 2012

The Taking of Christ (After Caravaggio) • Joe Forkan 2012, Conté crayon and graphite over etching and aquatint on paper, 13.25" x 23.75"

From the Laguna Art Museum website: “This stylish event will showcase works of art from over 100 premier California artists, which will be sold during a fast-paced live auction as well as an exciting silent auction. Attendees will have the opportunity to support the museum’s extraordinary education and exhibition programs by adding prestigious works of art by California artists to their collection.”

The Art Auction Preview begins Tuesday 31st, 11:00 a.m.-5:00 .p.m. at the Laguna Art Museum. Admission to the Preview is free.

The Art Auction is 6:00-9:00 Saturday Feb. 4, 2012. More info can be found on the Laguna Art Museum’s Auction website.

This reworked early stage etching is included in the Laguna Art Museum’s Auction 2012. The etching has been underway for some time and the final stage is being printed right now.

I will post more information and images soon.

Art Auction at the Laguna Art Museum


Oath of the Horatii (After David) • Joe Forkan 2008-2010 Oil on Panel 23" x 12.675"

I will have a small painting from The Lebowski Cycle in the The Laguna Art Museum’s 2011 Art Auction.

You can see this and work by over 100 artists from Saturday, February 5 through Friday, February 11 before items go up for auction on February 12, 2011.

The Museum is open daily from 11:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., and admission is free. Click here for information about the 2011 Art Auction.

Update: The Auction was last Saturday. Great event – packed with people.  Lots of fun and good sales for the Museum.

You can read an OC Register article about the event here.


The Lebowski Cycle – The Supper at Emmaus

Supper at Emmaus (After Caravaggio) • Joe Forkan 2006-2009 oil on linen 96"x 38"

This painting is based on Caravaggio’s Supper at Emmaus from 1601, which illustrates a dramatic moment from the story of Jesus’ resurrection. I was interested in Caravaggio’s take on the story because of his depiction of the moment of discovery, when the disciple’s “eyes were opened”, and for his symbolic use of the still life to reinforce the central idea of his painting.

Supper at Emmaus Caravaggio 1601 Oil on canvas 141 cm × 196.2 cm (55.5 in x 77.25 in) National Gallery, London

The symbolic references used in the paintings of this time period are somewhat obscure to us now, it is still clear from looking at the work that each figure, element, and gesture was an important consideration in the presentation of the story, all subsumed into the final image. One of the qualities that I most enjoy about narrative painting is that there is a clear story to be presented, but the specific events of the narrative give you great latitude for formal, conceptual or expressive shifts and digressions that can set a different tone or shift the story’s implications.

In my painting, I was looking to create a kind of visual and narrative tension between the figures, the dramatic space, and the still life, one that is suggestive of a larger narrative, and that hopefully moves beyond the specifics of the Jesus story, the Lebowski story, or the Caravaggio story, but retains a shifting, if uneasy relationship between all three, in addition to where I am trying to go with the content and the formal elements.

Detail from the Supper at Emmaus • Joe Forkan 2009

I hesitate to be any more forthcoming about my intentions for these paintings, in that I don’t want to set a specific read for anyone else. Painting is, after all, a language of its own and in this regard, I will let the paintings speak for themselves.

This painting was one of the most complex of The Lebowski Cycle. Its scale was daunting (96″ x 38″ / 243.84 cm x 96.52 cm), with 3 main figures that are slightly over life-size, and a deep space that I wanted to paint in a specific way. I wanted the background to be largely empty, but not in the way that Caravaggio’s paintings are empty, through the use of chiaroscuro (the contrasting effects of intense light and deep shadow). I was looking to represent space and to convey a sense of light and shadow through the relationships of large color shapes, rather than using a more dramatic recession into shadow.

This painting will be included in the Laguna Art Museums exhibition The OsCene 2010 –  Contemporary Art and Culture in Orange County from February 21st – May 16, 2010.