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With a full repertoire of sculptural
techniques at her disposal, Carole A. Feuerman composes figurative works
of art with formidable technical proficiency. Producing three-dimensional
images in resin, marble, and bronze, the artist's trompe-l'oeil sculptures
appear so real that they are disconcerting, while her metallic figures
radiate an abstract and expressionistic aura that pays homage to a
modernized muse. At the close of the 20th-century, Feuerman's
hyper-realistic sculptural presentation is deconstructed, and her return
to
classicism becomes apparent. This exhibition chronicle the artist's
thirty-year progression from studio to foundry.
In the early seventies, Feuerman enjoyed a lucrative career as a
commercial
artist. Signing her work "Carole Jean," Feuerman produced twenty-two
record album covers in addition to many other important commercial
commissions. She received an American Society of Illustrators Award of
Excellence for "Snake," a pullout poster included in a 1971 Alice Cooper
tour album. This drawn and air brushed image was the first of her pieces
to
be exhibited in a museum.
Like many artists with a successful commercial art background, Feuerman's
interests soon extended into the fine art realm. She recalls that, "In
those days, I was casting faces and bodies in wax and painting them. One
of
my pieces that went into an exhibit at the Society of Illustrators slid
off
the wall and broke, so I decided, if I was going to show work in the
future,
I had to find a permanent medium. I decided to use resin. I went to work
in a mannequin factory on Canal Street and trusted that someone would
teach
me."
Abandoning her career as a commercial artist, Feuerman began to produce
life-size oil painted resin sculptures. Inspired by the work of George
Segal, she concentrated upon the infinite number of emotions and attitudes
conveyed by the human body, selecting and capturing the most telling
gestures through realistic renderings of fragmented body parts. By
eliminating extraneous details, she invited viewers to use their own
imaginations in completing the implicit narrative presented by her
sculpture.
Feuerman's procedure for creating each resin sculpture is complex and
time
consuming. Just one work could take up to six months to complete.
Perhaps
the most technical part of her process involves casting, modeling and
carving, working with live models who pose in her studio. Through intense
observation, Feuerman refines her sculpture by eliminating everything
except
the essential elements of a particular pose. The final step entails a
return to the live model in the studio. Applying dozens, sometimes
hundreds
of coats of oil paint, she creates flesh tones that are true to life.
Feuerman's resin works are technically different than the sculptures
created by her hyper-realist male counterparts. "Everything that you see,
including the clothing and accessories, are things I sculpted and made to
look real," says Feuerman. After perfecting her ability to sculpt and
paint
the figure realistically, Feuerman began looking for a new technical
challenge. In her next series of sculptures, which focused on sports and
leisure activities, the artist set out to create the illusion of water
droplets on human skin in a believable manner. In works such as Catalina,
1981, Feuerman's most frequently cited sculpture, a wet female figure,
complete with goggles and a swimming cap, lifts herself from the water.
The
viewer is drawn into the swimmer's inner world and recognizes a feeling of
contentment conveyed by the figure's closed eyes and archaic smile.
Catalina, comprising only the upper trunk and head of a female athlete,
appears so real that the figure transcends sculpture to enter a new
reality.
Although Feuerman's resin sculptures often present entire narratives
through a few isolated elements of the human form, her new work began to
demonstrate a progression from hyper-realism to a style synthesizing more
abstract elements. Cast in stone using a mixture of resin and marble,
these
sculptures reference the materials and presentation of the High
Renaissance
although they are clearly crafted and idealized to suite the artist's
contemporary sensibilities.
In her unpainted marble sculptures, Feuerman experimented with
contemplative and emotive subjects, including relationships between men
and
women. Pieces such as The Lovers, 1986, convey meaningful and silent
dialogues. While this work is reminiscent of classical sculpture, it
remains fragmented. The facial portions of the piece maintain anatomical
detail, while the backs of the figures' heads are finished in a more
streamlined and abstracted style.
In 1994, Feuerman confronted disaster. She suffered a compound fracture
to
her right index finger. Although this accident may have been catastrophic
for a lesser sculptor, Feuerman weathered adversity through innovation.
Developing a cutting-edge body of new work created at the famed Tallix
Foundry near Beacon, New York, the artist created a unique process for
producing metallic sculptures capable of eclipsing the development of her
"water drops" in the 1970s.
Using large fragments of her previously hyper-realist sculptures, Feuerman
fractured or otherwise deconstructed her trompe-l'oeil artworks to create
a
series she calls Body Maps. Representing a radical departure from her
earlier resin painted sculptures, Body Maps expands upon the artist's
desire
to capture the moment and explore the range of human emotions. In these
works she focuses on the humanity, strength and fragility of her
subjects.
For Feuerman, reduction of the form is necessary for presenting the
representational figure as the essence of mankind. As her artwork becomes
more abstract, her ties to traditional sculptural media continue to serve
as
a counterbalance. The fragmented and multi-layered metallic torsos of the
Body Maps series reference Abstract Expression, while simultaneously
suggesting a reconsideration of a return to antiquity.
Introducing a technique she calls "painting with fire," Feuerman
manipulates her metallic media with apparent ease. In this process,
bronze
and other metals are heated to the requisite pouring temperature of 2,000
degrees Fahrenheit. The artist then pours and drips a variety of molten
metals, in a manner recalling Jackson Pollock's Action Painting, into a
mold
made from a specially tempered block of sand. Created with up to six
different types of molten metals, the layered strata and subtle coloring
of
the Body Maps series convey a sense of wonder, as if these shimmering
treasures belonged to a long forgotten era. Breathing new life into
mythological beings, such as Hermes, 1999, and Aphrodite, 1999, Feuerman's
oeuvre has traveled full circle. Her hyper-realist sculptures reflecting
contemporary figures are replaced by abstracted forms derived from Greek
mythology.
For more than three decades, Carole A. Feuerman's art work has challenged
viewers to look beyond the obvious and to explore the heart and soul of
figurative subjects. Her sculptures demonstrate a consistent artistic
development that continues to deconstruct the human form with modernized
classical elegance and technical mastery.
Lisa M. Davis
Curator of Education
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