December, 2009
Frank Lind’s
Artist’s Statement re. Seascapes:
These paintings are my expression of love for the ocean and the shore—I escape the city as often as I can to go and watch the waves. I frequently carry a portable easel and my oil paints out onto the littoral, working directly from the motif in the plein air style of 19th century French landscape and Hudson River painters. My larger paintings are made in the studio using sketches and photographs, but my true guide is the ocean itself, etched in my mind from hours spent observing the interactions of the elements. Watching the ocean is a wonderful way to experience the power and subtleties of nature, and to truly see.
Frank Lind
Artist’s Statement:
In his downtown Brooklyn studio, above the noise and grit of 21st century life, Frank Lind has carved out a painter’s existence. By using “old master” techniques of careful composing, analysis of formal relationships, underpainting and glazing, he does not mimic bygone traditions but uses painterly tools to make art that comes alive.
In 2001 the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York showed Vermeer’s “The Woman Holding a Balance,” usually seen at the National Gallery in Washington DC. Lind says:
Seeing the painting again in the Met made me remember how much that
painting had taught me, and how much I missed it. Copying the masters
used to be a large part of painting education, and it came to me that I need
not merely long for my own Vermeer, I could act on that longing. To make
my own copy, I assembled as many reproductions of the picture as possible (including a first-rate transparency, kindly provided to me by Mr. Gregory
Most, slide librarian at the National) and puctuated the process by frequent
visits to the Met to see the real thing.
It was like channeling a genius—an uncanny experience. He was next led to Corot, Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent in his “Altered Art History” series, which integrated contemporary nudes (from his own models) into 19th century compositions. In another approach, he placed a model in Sargent poses, e.g. “Madame X,” only instead of the woman being dressed in a dramatic black gown, she is nude. In these “updated” versions of old works, mysteries are compounded rather than exposed and deconstructed.
One of his latest series is painted in two-point perspective and employs a complex trigonometric system developed by the artist. It depicts female figures in a room with a chair and a rug, flanked by well-known Sargents, Vermeers, and Sorollas. These moody and mysterious women invoke a timeless dimension, emanating dark, caramel tones. More than just models in a artist’s studio, they are modern day goddesses caught in amber, stripped of specific narratives but saturated with psychological ambiguities and depths. The sexual politics of the last three centuries imbue these paintings with many subtle juxtapositions and ironies.
Like Rackstraw Downes, Vincent Desiderio and Antonio Lopez Garcia, Lind’s work rises from deeply felt impulses, both logical and intuitive, to learn the ways and means of making a painting. In these latest paintings, he has tapped into something very rich.
Selected Exhibitions
2007 Montauk
Noel Fine Arts, Bronxville, NY
2006 1 +1= 1: Paintings by Frank Lind, Digital Collages by Jeanne Wilkinson
Crecloo Art Gallery, New York, NY (two-person exhibition)
2006 Frank Lind: Recent Paintings
Tacoma Community College, Tacoma, Washington
2005 Frank Lind: At Sea
Tenri Cultural Center, New York, New York
2000 A Sea Change
Martin Art Gallery, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA
1995 Frank Lind: Recent Work
Georgetown University Art Gallery, Walsh Building, Washington D.C.
1995 Frank Lind: Recent Paintings
Boyd Art Gallery, Wilmington College, Wilmington, Ohio
1990 Frank Lind: Recent Work
Sarah Doyle Gallery, Brown University, Providence, R.I.
1986 Frank Lind
Georgetown University Art Gallery, Washington D.C.
1983 Pastoral Takeoffs
Bernal Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
Group Exhibitions
2009 ‘ ReIGNITE’ Alumni Show.
Pratt Insitute Steuben Gallery, September, 2009
2009 Annual Faculty Exhibition (annually from 1978 to present)
Schafler Gallery, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
2008 The Christmas Show
Noel Fine Art, December, 2007 – January 2008
Curated by Noel Degatano, other artists include Biagio Civale, Peter Devine, Michael Gesinger,
Elissa Gore, Christian Kunze, Frank Lind, Tom Lollar, Fred Mitchell, Alvin Most, Jenna Lyn Pallio,
Luca Spallanzani, Leonard Stokes, Hank Virgona, and Mansheng Wang.
2007 The New Hudson River School
Riverstone Arts, November 10 – December 30, 2007, Haverstraw, New York
Curated by Bill Hochhausen, other artists include Robert Berlind, John Buckley, Jacqueline Gourevitch,
Susanna Heller, Ellen Kozak.
2006 Mermaids, Sideshow Gallery, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
2005 The Painted Gift 2005, (annually from 1996)
Fourteenth Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Paintings, Hubert Gallery, NYC
2003 Art History’s Heroes: The Masters of Contemporary Realism
Martin Art Gallery, Allentown, PA Summer, 2003
Curated by Dr. Lori Verderame, other artists include David Graeme Baker,
Bo Bartlett, Valerie Demianchuk, Vincent Desiderio, Andrew Lenaghan,
Jos. A Smith, Chris Wright, with catalog.
2003 Treasures of the Greater Lehigh Valley,
Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PA, 6/15 – 11/9
2000 From Realism to Non-Objectivity: Contemporary Art from New York
to Philadelphia, Furlong Art Gallery, University of Wisconsin, Stout, Nov. 2000.
1999 Works from the Permanent Collection
Muhlenberg Coll., Allentown, PA
1999 All Things Great and Small: Art Inspired by Nature,
Masterpiece Galleries, New Hope, Pennsylvania.
1999 Local Color
Martin Art Gallery, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA
1998 Doors
Art/Network & the Studio Museum of Staten Island, NYC
1996 The Boat: Object and Metaphor
Pratt Manhattan Gal., Puck Bldg. NYC
1996 The Painted Gift (annually through 2005)
Hubert Gallery, NYC
1995 The American Pastime in Paint: Baseball on Canvas,
curated by Douglas Hilson, Hofstra Museum, Hempstead, New York
1995 Beach Reveries
Schafler Gallery, Pratt Institute
1995 December Exhibition
Hubert Gallery, NYC
1995 Painting the Hudson
Arts Alliance, Haverstraw, NY, curated by William Hochhausen
1994 December Exhibition
Hubert Gallery, NYC
1992 Landscape Exhibition
J.P. Clare, NYC, curated by Ellen Price
1989 A Painter’s Brooklyn
Puck Gallery, NYC, curated by Frank Lind
1985 Figure: Allegory and Symbol
curated by Jackie Battenfield, The Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
1984 Aspects of American Contemporary Realism
Melberg Gallery, Charlotte, N.C.
1982 Group Exhibition
Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
1981 Religion into Art
traveling exhibition, NYC, etc.
1978 Representational Painters
Pratt Institute
1975 Group Exhibition
Middagh Street Association, Brooklyn Heights, NY
1974 U.S. Information Agency, Print Exhibition,
traveling to U.S. Embassies in numerous countries, two editions included.
1973 Print Exhibition
Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY
Catalogues and Other Publications
“1 + 1 = 1: Frank Lind and Jeanne Wilkinson at Crecloo Art Gallery in New York”
by Christopher Chambers,
dART International, Volume 10, number 1, Spring 2007, p. 25.
Illustration of “What Rough Beast”
“1 + 1 = 1” Catalog for exhibition at Crecloo Art Gallery, New York, NY
with essay by Kay Kenny.
“Frank Lind: At Sea”
Catalog for exhibition at Tenri Institute, New York, NY
with essays by Thalia Vracopoulos and Jeanne Wilkinson
“Artists make heroic effort contemporary realism,” review by Geoff Gehman,
The Morning Call, Allentown, PA, June 26, 2003.
“Art History’s Heroes: The Masters of Contemporary Realism,”
Catalog for exhibition curated by Dr. Lori Verderame,
“Homage to Sargent: In the Luxembourg Gardens, 2002-3, p.3
“The Gift,” 1999-00, 64”- 80”p. 19,
“View from Camp Hero,” 1999-00, back cover.
“Friends of the Martin Art Gallery,” brochure, 2001, featuring a cover illustration
of “Sea and Sky,” 65” x 46”, 1999.
“Buck’s County Artists,” by Lori Verderame, Ph.D. American Art Review,
Volume XII, Number 6, November - December 2000, pp.126-7,
illus. of “Frenchtown,” p. 127.
A Sea Change: New Paintings by Frank Lind, Catalog for exhibition at
Muhlenberg College, Fall 2000, essay written by Dr. Lori Verderame.
American Art Review, Volume XII, Number 5, September-October 2000,
illus. of “Sea and Sky,” p. 138.
Faculty and Staff PrattNotes, Volume IV, No. 1 Spring ‘00, p. 3.
“Session on Value of Art & Antiques to be Offered,” Beacon, Hunterdon, NJ.
Frank LInd, Dean of the School of Art and Design, Prattfolio, Summer 2000,
News and Events, p. 13.
“Contemporary American Art in the Muhlenberg Collection,” Dr. Lori Verderame,
Director, Martin Art Gallery The Magazine of Muhlenberg College, Fall, 2000,
Volume 11, Number 1, p. 18, including reproduction of “Sea and Sky.”
Group Effort, by Myra Yellin Outwater, The Morning Call, Allentown, PA,
Friday, Aug. 6, 1999, pp. 1 and D3.
Poster for Pratt Institute Graduate Fine Arts, 1998,
with reproduction of “Maestro” 1997, o/c.
“State of the Arts: Looking Forward / Looking Back: A Museum for the New
Millenium,” by Lori Verderame, Ph.D., Director, Martin Art Gallery,
The Magazine of Muhlenberg College, Fall, 1999, Volume 10, Number 1.
Professional Experience
2000-2009 Dean, School of Art and Design, Pratt Institute
1999-2000 Acting Dean, School of Art and Design, Pratt Institute
1991-1999 Chair, Fine Arts Department, Pratt Institute
1997 Artist in Residence, Oklahoma Arts Institute, Stillwater, OK
1976-1991 Chair, Graduate Fine Arts, Pratt Institute
1975 -- Professor, Painting and Drawing, Pratt Institute
Education
1974 MFA Pratt Institute
1970 BA Georgetown University
