Stanley Lewis

The combination of an obsessive focus on perception, together with the realization that the artist must "fake" reality to create a compelling painting, is at the heart of Lewis's work. Although he wants deeply to get the essence of what he sees-all those little particulars-he also says "You don't paint what you see, you paint very abstractly. If there's a dark green on the tree that's way behind, I paint that right on the surface of the tree. I make the darks into decorative flat rhythms. I paint the lights back and bring the darks forward. I find these loopy rhythms. I find accidents in the situation that enable me to make another tree, not the one I see." Lewis's paintings are unrelenting-as he says, "endurance is the key"They remind us that it is not enough to paint dynamic abstract planes: you must get the whole, true form; and it is not enough to paint the realistic form: you must get the whole forceful picture.This was the ultimate lesson that Lewis gleaned from Bell, Carone, his understanding of Derain, and ultimately, his own personal experience. It is a tall order that not many artists working today are willing to take on. 
All quotations of Stanley Lewis ore from on interview with the author in October 2007. 

 

This catalog is a project of 
Steven Harvey 
Fine Art Projects lie 
780 Riverside Drive, #Saa 
New York City, NY I 0032 
212-281-2281
info@shfap.com 
www.shfap.com 
and accompanies an exhibition 
from January 29-February 23, 2008 at 
Bowery Gallery 
530 West 25th St., 4th fl. 
New York, NY I 000 I 
646-230-6655
Bowerygalleryorg 
boweryg@earthlink.net