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March 5th – June 19h
Jean Miotte
The Conductor’s Body
Paris Feelings. Acrylic on canvas. 63 3/4 x 51 1/8 in.
The Conductor’s Body explores the relationship between Jean Miotte’s investigations, paint, and practice in the 1950s and 60s. This exploratory period in his career established the foundation and stylistic signature that defines his work today. The eruptions of color that exist in Miotte’s paintings are the result of a career devoted to exploration.
Both Miotte’s media and methods transformed during these two decades. He experimented with oils, gouaches, ink washes, prints and collage. Through this and his investigations of the human body (specifically gesture), his compositions and the physicality of their media changed. The viscous oils he used in the early 50’s gave way to his water based paint studies. Thus, his impasto style, which was heavy, deep, opaque and thick, loosened to become smoother, and softer. The inherent fluidity of water based paints initiated a stylistic shift from once closed canvases, with slower shorter strokes, to open elongated curves that suddenly sped around spiraling. This revolution in texture and visual energy within Miotte’s new work evolved from his predominantly dark imagery towards the bright and airy; evidence of the development of his contemporary style. A certain new liveliness burst from his creations. A freedom directly related to the movement of his brushes, knives, and most importantly, his body. As John Yau describes it, “Miotte’s transitions from thick surfaces to vigorous brushstrokes, and subsequently to delicate, precarious, liquid-like structures, can be read as evidence of his changing perceptions of the human body and its engagement with the physical world.” Studying the human body and specifically dance was pivotal for Miotte in defining his physicalization of gesture.
With his mastery, he developed an improvisational relationship based on the harmony of his paints, his body and the act of creation. Steadily, Miotte and his art experienced a transformation through both the change in his painting materials, and his investigation of dance as a gesture of timing. Miotte’s role during this period can be described in two ways: as a Conductor of impulsive choreography and through his conduction of substances like a corporeal passage for his materials.
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556 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011
tel 212.255.0719 e-mail contact@chelseaartmuseum.org
fax 212.255.2368
open Tuesday through Saturday 11am to 6pm
Thursday 11am to 8pm
closed Sunday and Monday
$8 adults, $4 students and seniors, free for members and visitors
16 and under
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