Joyce Treiman exhibit opens October 27, 2005

USM Art Gallery, Gorham campus

Gallery talk by Ted Wolff 6pm

 
Joyce Treiman
Paintings, Drawings, and Prints


Joyce Treiman, a Los Angeles painter who died in 1991, is renowned for her eccentric narratives with humanist themes and her incisive self-portraits. Treiman used vibrant color and fluid strokes to portray ironic narratives that encompass both humor and tragedy. The acclaimed art critic and author Ted Wolff wrote of Treiman, “Few recent Americans have been as adept as she with both line and color… she was a fiercely independent, iconoclastic artist of great range and abilities.”

According to Wolff, true fame eluded Treiman during her lifetime because her talents were too individualistic and wide ranging to conform to the formal agendas of the critically acclaimed art movements of the time. Treiman disregarded the various modern art movements, preferring the style of the “old masters.”  However, Treiman's solid reputation is demonstrated by the fact that her work is included in the collections of many private individuals and institutions, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Treiman created many self-portraits that constitute an autobiographical commentary on where she stood on issues.  Near the end of her career Treiman was diagnosed with lung cancer and her works shifted focus to reflect a mood of farewell and departure.   Many of the works of that time period include a malevolent male character referred to as “Joker.”  The character “Joker,” often representing vanity, death and corruption, is found in a series of works focused on themes of mortality, yet laced with dry humor.

This exhibition showcases Treiman’s skill in a variety of media including monotypes, dry point and hand-colored etchings; graphite and pastel drawings; and oil paintings. In addition to a series of self-portraits, the exhibit also features several of Treiman’s figure studies demonstrating her drawing mastery, and also her vibrant and luminous landscape paintings.

The thirty-six works, ranging in size from miniature studies to large-scale complex compositions, are on loan from George Adams Gallery in New York City. Many thanks to George Adams, as well as Don Treiman, Teresa Duff, and Hilton Garden Inn for enabling us to bring an artist with such spirit and fire to wintry Maine.