Richard D. Weis
Ellenbogen Gallery • Manchester Center, VT • ellenbogengallery.com • Through March 14, 2020
Richard D. Weis, an accomplished painter and life-long fan of Asian brush drawing, is presenting a collection of 29 abstract works that have never before been exhibited. Included are many influenced by his Fulbright residency at Hannam University in Daejon, South Korea in 2003, and his encounter with Keith Malmquist, who had studied with Josef Albers. Throughout his career which includes a Vermont Council on the Arts grant and two from the Fulbright Foundation, Weis has traveled a unique path that encompasses old master techniques and experimental media.
Attention to process and a sense of self-reflection are evident in every one of Weis’s works. Standing Blues, a bold gestural painting, is mysterious despite its musical title. Playing between figure and abstraction, the variation of the shades of blue and subtle touches of red against a misty background serve to deepen its aura.
Weis confesses to years dedicated to figuration, and still draws regularly. Sensuate, a study in pastel colors, is a composite of many studies of his favorite model in motion. There is a joyous quality to the overall freedom of the strokes, which dance over the entire piece. In contrast, Be Still My Heart, painted after his wife’s health crisis, features a deep, dark gestural center surrounded by lighter, varied colors and brush marks. There is an enormous push and pull in the piece. Powerful strokes cause the viewer to stop and take notice.
Weis is a master in both oil and acrylic. He is an expert in glazing techniques, and even his acrylic compositions often display the complexity and depth of work in oil. In Just Passing Through, he employs acrylic, oil stick and gold leaf in a highly textural painting, which almost bursts off the canvas.
The title of the exhibit, Beyond Words, comes from Weis’s belief that we all know there are things we can’t verbalize. For him, art is the preferred mode of expression. He quotes his favorite poet, W. H. Anden, “to discover what it is to be human now is the reason we follow this star.” We are fortunate to be able to experience the traces of Weis’s profound and honest search.