Hudson Beach Glass – DONALD ALTER: Chromatic Tales – Part 1 and 2 Paintings, Drawings, Prints May 12 – July 5, 2012
Donald Alter Apple Orchard 2010, 29x22in, acrylic on canvas
Donald Alter: Chromatic Tales Part 1: May 12 – June 7
Opening Reception on Beacon’s Second Saturday, May 12, 6-9pm
Donald Alter: Chromatic Tales Part 2: June 9 – July 5
Opening Reception on Beacon’s Second Saturday, June 9, 6-9pm
HUDSON BEACH GALLERY at HUDSON BEACH GLASS
162 MAIN STREET, BEACON, NY 12508 845 440-0068
GALLERY HOURS: Mon – Sat 10am – 6pm, Sun 11am – 6pm
www.hudsonbeachglass.com
GALLERY HOURS: Mon – Sat 10am – 6pm, Sun 11am – 6pm
www.hudsonbeachglass.com
“It’s not a question just of color, shape and form. It is a question whether there is a dialogue going on. One piece of a painting talks to another. It’s a lot you can do with a painting; (it) keeps me pumping.” - Donald Alter
Hudson Beach Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of Donald Alter’s Chromatic Tales,
curated by Tony Moore and Harald Plochberger.
curated by Tony Moore and Harald Plochberger.
Donald Alter’s most recent and comprehensive body of work to date, comprising landscapes, abstract paintings, drawings and prints will be featured in a two part solo exhibition
“Donald Alter: Chromatic Tales” at Hudson Beach Gallery, 2nd floor at Hudson Beach Glass, 162 Main Street, Beacon, NY 12508 from May 12 to July 5, 2012.
“Donald Alter: Chromatic Tales” at Hudson Beach Gallery, 2nd floor at Hudson Beach Glass, 162 Main Street, Beacon, NY 12508 from May 12 to July 5, 2012.
The reception for Part 1 of “Donald Alter: Chromatic Tales”, featuring the artist’s most current psychologically oriented “Hudson Valley Landscapes”, new figurative works, a series of penetrating character studies, or “Heads” and recent computer manipulated prints will open on Beacon’s 2nd Saturday, May 12 from 6-9 pm; through Thursday June 7.
The reception for Part 2 of “Donald Alter: Chromatic Tales” featuring prominent early abstract paintings juxtaposed with new figurative works, will open on Beacon’s 2nd Saturday, June 9 from 6-9 pm; through Thursday July 5.
Curatorial Note:
The two part exhibition “Donald Alter: Chromatic Tales”is Alter’s most extensive and comprehensive local exhibition to date. Shown in two parts/or chapters, it will focus on various narratives/or chromatic tales which the artist has employed in executing his landscape, figurative and abstract paintings, drawings and prints.In “Donald Alter: Chromatic Tales, Part 1” the essential focus of the exhibition will be given to Alter’s Hudson Valley inspired landscapes. In these works he attempts to bring something new to his, and the viewer’s understanding of the interpretation of landscape. Always experimenting with methodology, materials and techniques, in his most recent works he also incorporates the stylistic influences of computer drawing, which endlessly fascinates his imagination.
The two part exhibition “Donald Alter: Chromatic Tales”is Alter’s most extensive and comprehensive local exhibition to date. Shown in two parts/or chapters, it will focus on various narratives/or chromatic tales which the artist has employed in executing his landscape, figurative and abstract paintings, drawings and prints.In “Donald Alter: Chromatic Tales, Part 1” the essential focus of the exhibition will be given to Alter’s Hudson Valley inspired landscapes. In these works he attempts to bring something new to his, and the viewer’s understanding of the interpretation of landscape. Always experimenting with methodology, materials and techniques, in his most recent works he also incorporates the stylistic influences of computer drawing, which endlessly fascinates his imagination.
In these works we see entangled undergrowth, idealized and bucolic other worldly vistas, people of varied race, children, solitary figures, specters (ghost-like apparitions), planes (whether metaphorically contemporaneous or emanating from Newburgh international airport), buildings, dwellings, or representatives of “home sweet home”. However, one can not quite be sure of what one comprehends. Such is the stuff of the human condition.
In the most recent and previously unseen figurative works, which emanate from the Hudson Valley landscapes, the artist juxtaposes various mysterious and perhaps archetypal figures which are seen in peculiar and disturbed relationship to one another and their environs. Or perhaps they are not even related at all. Although there is a psychologically implied narrative, or drama, the viewer is left to their own interpretation as to the true story that unfolds.
Donald Alter Head #5 2011, 28x21in, acrylic on canvas
In these significant paintings, which are highlighted selections from a creatively distinguished career, it would not be amiss for the viewer to consider that at nearly 82 years old, Donald Alter is perhaps consciously as well as subliminally coming to terms with his life, his relationship to the past, to the present and particularly to his place within the history of art.
Alter, admirably demonstrates his acute knowledge and facility for 20th century modernism, particularly the works of Picasso, which have been well digested, personalized and made his own. Whether in abstraction or figuration, he employs ingenious artistic devises, forming intriguing narratives which were no doubt invented for the artist’s amusement and viewer’s delight. Recent discoveries are to be seen in an extended series of small psychologically penetrating character studies of “Heads”, which accompany the show. Also on view in Part 1 will be Alter’s most recent investigations into conceptually derived computer generated prints, which he equates to cheap production “knock-off” textiles, an associative memory from his former successful career as a New York based fabric designer.
In “Donald Alter: Chromatic Tales, Part 2” the exhibition installation will seemingly undergo a dramatic change as Hudson Valley landscapes are taken away and replaced with significant earlier abstract, chromatic and linear paintings. Recent figurative works will remain. However, if we have eyes to see and have maintained our visual memories, no matter how stylistically dissimilar these works might apparently be, the viewer will recognize the overlapping visual narratives. When considered as chapters within a life’s work, they eventually coalesce as a very engaging and meaningful whole.
Fundamentally, much of Don Alter’s work, just like the magic of art and life itself, is “just plain beautiful” — a rare and genuine commodity.
Since the artist’s retirement as a successful NYC based textile designer in 1990, Donald Alter and his wife Alice have resided in Newburgh, NY. He studied art at the renowned Black Mountain College from 1948-51. In 2011 Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center exhibited a group of his paintings and acquired his work for their collection as did Asheville Art Museum, NC. He is also an active member of Garrison Art Center where he had a solo exhibition “Donald Alter: Beyond Black Mountain”, in 2009. Donald Alter was born in 1930 to Polish and Russian immigrant parents, he attended the High School of Music and Art, NYC and grew up in the Bronx.
A biographical text by Tony Moore and critical essay by Vivian Goldstein will accompany his forthcoming exhibition.
A DVD film, “Donald Alter: A Dialogue on Painting”, produced by Harald Plochberger and Tony Moore, directed by Harald Plochberger will also accompany the exhibition. It was conceived, shot and produced over several months during the late fall of 2008.
Hudson Beach Gallery is located on the 2nd floor of Hudson Beach Glass, at 162 Main Street, Beacon. It is easily accessible by car, approximately 60 miles north of NYC in the Hudson Valley, on the east side of the Newburgh/Beacon Bridge, at the intersection of Route 9D and Interstate 84, or by train from Grand Central Station, Metro North Hudson Line to Beacon.
