Steve Cieslawski's Fanciful Enigmas
Cieslawski's first solo show at CFM Gallery in 2002 caught the attention of critics and collectors for his ability to evoke fabulous figures and scenery in a smooth, meticulous technique reminiscent of the Flemish masters. Moon gazers and ice skaters in quasi-Victorian costumes captured the viewers' imaginations as they comported themselves with quaint formality in landscapes limned in a manner that also appeared to reference the crystal clarity and heightened auras of the Luminists, a branch of the Hudson River School steeped in nineteenth century transcendentalism. Cieslawski, however, took the formal qualities of Luminism a fanciful step further by populating his transcendent landscapes with elaborately costumed figures engaged in all manner of amusing leisure activities and arcane pageantry.
Steve Cieslawski has now pared down his pictures in a manner that has caused them to gain in formal power. And while his technique is still meticulous, it has taken on a paradoxical fluidity that reveals his growing mastery..
Witness, for example, the flowing folds in the golden ocher gown and trail of the expressively elongated figure in the oil on canvas called "Oracle's Revolt." Here, the handling of the vertical draperies, set against the horizontal rivulets of blue sky and cumuli, as the wild-haired oracle throws up her hands histrionically, creates a rippling compositional dynamism quite unprecedented in Cieslawski's oeuvre. The painter's growing confidence in his gifts emboldens him to impart new expressive force to the figure, enhancing the sense of abandon in the oracle's apparent tantrum.
Bolder in its formal impact and even more imagistically fanciful is the painting entitled "Unfamiliar Visit," in which a trio of doll-like figures are seen on a sea of gold-tinged clouds with pointed tips that curl up like ocean waves in a vehicle that appears to be a hybrid of a sailing ship and an air balloon. Then there is "Nocturnal Emissary, another mysterious vision of a long-beaked, bent- backed, cloaked avian figure laboriously pulling a sled containing what appears to be a bundled human body across a vast expanse of ice, the entire composition enveloped in deep blue hues. While it is perilous to attempt too literal an interpretation of imagery so fanciful, the symbolism in this work seems fixated on the journey from life to death, from this world to the next.
For all the singularity of Cieslawski's sensibility,the sublime sense of desolation in some of his most recent oils is akin to the contemporary Norwegian fantasist Odd Nerdrum. This quality comes across most starkly in Cieslawski's glowing oil "The Birth of Hours," in which the heads of two figures, buried to the chin in clouds, are crowned by sun-dials under a hazy solar blaze, as well as in "The Viewing," where two figures in Renaissance garb stand to the waist in an ocean under a cloud-laden night sky. One figure holds a painting of a face in a gold frame, its bottom half hidden behind the passing waves. Could the second picture symbolize the plight of the figurative artist in the con temporary art world, or does it allude to some infinitely more profound subject? One of the pleasures of Cieslawski's pictures is attempting to decode the visual conundrums they pose, which continually test our imaginative resources.
For its sheer visual dynamism one of the most impressive paintings in Cieslawski's present exhibition is also one of the most completely confounding. Entitled "The Last Ingredient," it depicts a woman, her hair and long gown flying behind her, racing across a panoramic vista of pyramid- shaped dunes under a sky enlivened by strata of shapely, dramatically shadowed clouds. As she runs, she cradles in her arms an object that one might expect to be a swaddled infant but which actually appears to be a large, inert organic mass resembling a sheaf of wheat. This is apparently the "last ingredient" referred to in the title of the painting, and the figure's frantic flight, face raised prayerfully to the heavens, implies that it is a matter of great urgency that she get it to its destination in order to complete some magical mission. The golden glow that bathes the entire composition, coloring the clouds, the dunes, the woman's gown, and the object in her arms, further enhances the sense that some thing alchemical is afoot in this luminous oil, with its graceful abstract interaction of flowing forms accelerating the narrative action. Similarly lovely in the latter regard is the darkly evocative canvas called, "Listening for the Sea."
Steve Cieslawslci's new exhibition represents a true breakthrough for this fine figurative painter. If the promise of his earlier work was in merging witty inventiveness with flawless technique, the new canvases compel us with a deeper, darker sense of mystery.
Having initially viewed the world from a somewhat aloof, bemused perspective, Cieslawski has stepped into the fray of life and death. His paintings now take larger risks and gain measurably in increased depth, impact, and power.
-Ed McCormack ,Gallery & studio Magazine 2004
Cieslawski's first solo show at CFM Gallery in 2002 caught the attention of critics and collectors for his ability to evoke fabulous figures and scenery in a smooth, meticulous technique reminiscent of the Flemish masters. Moon gazers and ice skaters in quasi-Victorian costumes captured the viewers' imaginations as they comported themselves with quaint formality in landscapes limned in a manner that also appeared to reference the crystal clarity and heightened auras of the Luminists, a branch of the Hudson River School steeped in nineteenth century transcendentalism. Cieslawski, however, took the formal qualities of Luminism a fanciful step further by populating his transcendent landscapes with elaborately costumed figures engaged in all manner of amusing leisure activities and arcane pageantry.
Steve Cieslawski has now pared down his pictures in a manner that has caused them to gain in formal power. And while his technique is still meticulous, it has taken on a paradoxical fluidity that reveals his growing mastery..
Witness, for example, the flowing folds in the golden ocher gown and trail of the expressively elongated figure in the oil on canvas called "Oracle's Revolt." Here, the handling of the vertical draperies, set against the horizontal rivulets of blue sky and cumuli, as the wild-haired oracle throws up her hands histrionically, creates a rippling compositional dynamism quite unprecedented in Cieslawski's oeuvre. The painter's growing confidence in his gifts emboldens him to impart new expressive force to the figure, enhancing the sense of abandon in the oracle's apparent tantrum.
Bolder in its formal impact and even more imagistically fanciful is the painting entitled "Unfamiliar Visit," in which a trio of doll-like figures are seen on a sea of gold-tinged clouds with pointed tips that curl up like ocean waves in a vehicle that appears to be a hybrid of a sailing ship and an air balloon. Then there is "Nocturnal Emissary, another mysterious vision of a long-beaked, bent- backed, cloaked avian figure laboriously pulling a sled containing what appears to be a bundled human body across a vast expanse of ice, the entire composition enveloped in deep blue hues. While it is perilous to attempt too literal an interpretation of imagery so fanciful, the symbolism in this work seems fixated on the journey from life to death, from this world to the next.
For all the singularity of Cieslawski's sensibility,the sublime sense of desolation in some of his most recent oils is akin to the contemporary Norwegian fantasist Odd Nerdrum. This quality comes across most starkly in Cieslawski's glowing oil "The Birth of Hours," in which the heads of two figures, buried to the chin in clouds, are crowned by sun-dials under a hazy solar blaze, as well as in "The Viewing," where two figures in Renaissance garb stand to the waist in an ocean under a cloud-laden night sky. One figure holds a painting of a face in a gold frame, its bottom half hidden behind the passing waves. Could the second picture symbolize the plight of the figurative artist in the con temporary art world, or does it allude to some infinitely more profound subject? One of the pleasures of Cieslawski's pictures is attempting to decode the visual conundrums they pose, which continually test our imaginative resources.
For its sheer visual dynamism one of the most impressive paintings in Cieslawski's present exhibition is also one of the most completely confounding. Entitled "The Last Ingredient," it depicts a woman, her hair and long gown flying behind her, racing across a panoramic vista of pyramid- shaped dunes under a sky enlivened by strata of shapely, dramatically shadowed clouds. As she runs, she cradles in her arms an object that one might expect to be a swaddled infant but which actually appears to be a large, inert organic mass resembling a sheaf of wheat. This is apparently the "last ingredient" referred to in the title of the painting, and the figure's frantic flight, face raised prayerfully to the heavens, implies that it is a matter of great urgency that she get it to its destination in order to complete some magical mission. The golden glow that bathes the entire composition, coloring the clouds, the dunes, the woman's gown, and the object in her arms, further enhances the sense that some thing alchemical is afoot in this luminous oil, with its graceful abstract interaction of flowing forms accelerating the narrative action. Similarly lovely in the latter regard is the darkly evocative canvas called, "Listening for the Sea."
Steve Cieslawslci's new exhibition represents a true breakthrough for this fine figurative painter. If the promise of his earlier work was in merging witty inventiveness with flawless technique, the new canvases compel us with a deeper, darker sense of mystery.
Having initially viewed the world from a somewhat aloof, bemused perspective, Cieslawski has stepped into the fray of life and death. His paintings now take larger risks and gain measurably in increased depth, impact, and power.
-Ed McCormack ,Gallery & studio Magazine 2004