DAN GOTTLIEB FIGURE | GROUND
Craven Allen Gallery, Durham, NC. March 23 to May 18, 2024
Artist Statement: Figure-ground relationships in art concern the perception of a subject within its environment – usually its background. Artists, from impressionism and through various movements in the 20th century, incrementally dissolved figure-ground distinctions. Interestingly, this devolution was parallel, especially early in the century, with an explosion of contemporary ideas in physics and psychology. Cubists and Futurists incorporated concepts of speed and multiple viewpoints, fracturing the picture plane into fragments, flattening space until figure and ground were often indistinguishable. By mid-century, color-field painting and other movements of the avant garde disposed of subject altogether, fundamentally altering figure-ground traditions.
The devolution of subject and narrative beyond abstraction was the artistic milieu into which my coming of age and education in painting, printmaking, and photography took root and fired my imagination. It settled into the way I see everyday objects and places and a constant strain in my work. As an artist, my interest in the ambiguity of figure-ground perception – that place between waking life and impermanence - is where I find great beauty and inspiration.
In a departure from recent exhibitions which centered on environmental concerns like climate- induced wildfire, Figure Ground focuses on this core aspect of my work and includes a wide diversity of subject matter organized around my aesthetic explorations of ambiguity, mystery, and impermanence in forest walks, on city streets, spiritual spaces, and in private settings.
I hope viewers of Figure Ground will take a mindful moment with the pictures and perhaps reflect on our impermanence and the ever-changing beauty to be found everywhere.
