Robert Godfrey
| Robert Godfrey | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 17, 1941 |
| 🏳️ Nationality | American |
| 🏫 Education | Trenton State College, Philadelphia College of Art, Indiana University |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| Known for | Painting, Drawing, Installation, Art Writing, Curation |
| Movement | Narrative Painting, Figurative painting, Humanism, Expressionism, Romanticism, collaboration |
| 🌐 Website | www |
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Robert Godfrey (born April 17, 1941) is an American artist best known for his large scale narrative paintings. He is also an art writer and curator.
Early years[edit]
Godfrey is raised in the rural farming community of Mount Laurel, New Jersey. His grandparents' 100 acre vegetable farm supplies tomatoes to Campbell's Soup and produce to the Philadelphia market.[1] Godfrey is the first male in the family to graduate high school (Moorestown High School, 1959). His father leaves the family farm to become a self-taught machinist and rare metals welder. Godfrey spends much of his time with his grandfather and working on the farm.[2]
After high school Godfrey starts as a day laborer in a metallurgical manufacturing company where he does yard maintenance and shovels coal from incoming freight trains. After learning that he has a science and humanities background, Swedish-owned [1]Höganäs AB reassigns Godfrey to the research and quality control laboratory. He completes a degree in fine art (Philadelphia College of Art, 1961-66) while maintaining his full-time position as lab technician.
In 1966 Godfrey resigns his laboratory job and travels to Europe to paint in Copenhagen as a Fullbright scholar.[3] When he returns to the States he attends the Graduate School of Fine Art at Indiana University, Bloomington.
Personal Life[edit]
In 1961 Godfrey marries Nancy Arlen (1942-2006) who becomes a sculptor and the drummer for the No Wave band Mars.[4] Godfrey and Arlen are parents of ceramicist/metalsmith Bridget Godfrey. They part in 1965 to pursue separate careers and divorce in 1977. Godfrey maintains a ten-year relationship (1970-80) with painter Barbara White. From 1984 to 1989 he is married to the video artist Tari Abranovich and in 1991 married metalsmith and attorney Mary Gager. They divorce in 2012.
1970s[edit]
Godfrey's first solo exhibition (1973) is at Brata Gallery in lower Manhattan, one of the remaining 10th Street galleries of the 50s and 60s.[5] He curates a number of traveling exhibitions including The Figure in Recent American Painting (1974) and In Praise of Space (1976).[6][7][8] He moves into a loft on Water Street in Lower Manhattan and becomes the first director of the artist-run Artists' Choice Museum (1979).[9] [10][11] He becomes an original member of the Soho-based Blue Mountain Gallery.[12]
1980s[edit]
In the 1980s Godfrey has twelve solo exhibitions including three solo museum installations (North Carolina Museum of Art, Butler Institute of American Art, Asheville Art Museum).[13] He maintains his New York gallery and affiliates with Butcher and More Gallery (Philadelphia), and Lou Proctor/Art Gallery Ltd (North Carolina).
In the mid-eighties Godfrey leaves the Northeast and moves to Southern Appalachia, near Asheville, to assume the directorship of the department of art at Western Carolina University (1985-2001).
He is hired as the weekly art critic for the Asheville Citizen-Times, appointed by the Governor to the board of the North Carolina Arts Council, and serves as vice-president for external affairs for the Asheville Art Museum.[14][15]
1990s[edit]
In the 1990s Godfrey has fifteen solo exhibitions including his first two international showings- Galerie Ruth Sachse/En Passant, Hamburg, Germany and Reed Gallery, Copenhagen.[16] Each European gallery hangs between 150 and 250 paintings from Godfrey's Love Stories series. His large narrative series, the Fire and Water Myths, travels to four museums in North Carolina (1990-91).[17] Godfrey begins conceiving of his work as complex installations. His second solo exhibition at the Butler Institute of American Art (The Little 500 series, 1992) is installed on the floor and viewed from a second storey balcony.[18] He affiliates with Zone One Gallery in Asheville, NC.[19]
Godfrey continues to publish Crits, the contemporary arts journal he founded in the late 1980s. He hosts Art Beat, a weekly Asheville, North Carolina TV interview program with co-host Connie Bostic.[20]
21st century[edit]
Godrey resigns his university position (2001). He becomes an honorary research fellow for the Archive of Humanist Art, Melbourne, Australia.[21] In 2003 he receives a Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award from the Butler Institute of American Art.[22]
Godfrey exhibits in Italy, Australia, Romania, and Spain.[23] He affiliates with the Bidgette Mayer Gallery, Philadelphia (solo exhibition Nifty Stories, 2005).[24] He also curates Greetings from Black Mountain College for the gallery in 2006.[25]
Godfrey moves back to the Northeast in 2001, relocating to Hudson, New York where he opens his Prison Alley and State Street Studios. He launches Curatorium, a 40-month experimental art space with guest curators and invited artists (2012-2015).[26] [27] He expands his independent press (Scion Press, 2006), publishing experimental writing on art and artists. He appoints Elwood Beach as editor, producer, and feature writer.
Styles And Themes[edit]
Godfrey's style is considered narrative, expressionistic, and romantic.[28] He is a storyteller.[29] By the mid-eighties he dismisses the model and begins working in a direct, rather stream-of-consciousness, manner. By 2008 he has eliminated traditional materials such as oil paint and linen, and works with industrial and commercial type paints, spray paints, and markers on non-traditional supports such as aluminum panels, cardboard, sheetrock, and plywood.[2] Godfrey's work has always been about "the big picture" with some dimensions approaching 20 feet or more. He moves away from the traditional approach of hanging pieces to dealing in complex choreographed installations, Pursuit of the Muse is a reoccurring theme.[30] Godfrey admires a few painters. He has mentioned Eilshemius, Goya, Paul Georges, Alice Neel, Balthus, Chagall and, in general, Rococo. Humanists, he calls them.[31]
References[edit]
- ↑ "Historical American Buildings Collection, Haines-Darnell (Godfrey) House, Mount Laurel, New Jersey, 1782," Library of Congress. HABS NJ, 3-MCULA. V,2.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Spencer, George. Oral history interview with Robert Godfrey, Wave Farm Radio WGXC 90.7 FM, Hudson, NY, September 28, 2017. HTTPS://waveform.org/archive/wjt7k3 George Spencer speaks with Hudson-based artist Robert Godfrey. He paints on industrial and commercial materials such as aluminum, cardboard, plywood and Masonite using latex house paint, metallic automobile paint, commercial spray paint and chalk. He is, among other things, a gallerist, intellectual provocateur, and publisher.
- ↑ Clark, Paul. "The Artist's Challenge." Asheville-Citizen Times, Asheville, NC, September 1, 2004.
- ↑ Moore, Thurston and Bryan Coley, No Wave.Post-Punk Underground.New York 1976-1980., Abrams Image, New York, 2008.
- ↑ Gollin, Jane, "Reviews and Previews." ARTnews, Vol.72p. 89. April 1973.
- ↑ Crane, Diana. The Transformation of the Avant-Garde: The New York Art World 1940-1985, University of Chicago Press, 1987.
- ↑ Gussow, Alan. "Let's Put the Land Back in Landscape," New York Times. March 13, 1976.
- ↑ Donahoe, Victoria. "Return to Nature," Philadelphia Inquirer, August 13, 1976.
- ↑ Ashbery, John. "Two Worlds and Their Way," New York Magazine, September 24, 1979.
- ↑ Berlind, Robert. "Recent Realism and the Artists' Choice Museum," Art Journal, vol 41, issue 2, pp 176-180, 1981.
- ↑ Tallmer, Jerry. "Kitchen for the Realists," New York Post. August 25, 1979.
- ↑ Evans, Judith, et al."Blue Mountain Gallery," Evolution of a Gallery. Blue Mountain Gallery Publication, New York, NY. 2010.
- ↑ Burckhardt, Rudy. "Poetic Narration," Robert Godfrey:Major Works, The Butler Institute of American Art. 1983.
- ↑ This Week."Godfrey to do a Sunday Art Column" Asheville Citizen-Times, Asheville, NC, September 1, 1985.
- ↑ "Godfrey Named to Inernational Critics Association," The Sylva Herald. March 16, 1989.
- ↑ Presley, Francios M. "Robert Godfrey's Love Stories," Kultur Magazin, Hamburg, September 1998.
- ↑ Gerard, Philip. "Robert Godfrey: Four Tales for the Hour Between the Dog and the Wolf," Arts and Letters: Journal of Contemporary Culture, Georgia College and University Press, Issue 5, pp 67-76, Spring 2001.
- ↑ Singer, Clyde. "Two Shows at the Butler," Youngstown Vindicator. October 18, 1992.
- ↑ Roland, Marya. "Robert Godfrey: The Chicken Alley Wedding Series," Art Papers, Atlanta, November/December, 1997.
- ↑ Dickey, Erin. "Connie Bostic Materials to be Archived in the North Carolina Room at Pack Library," Artists' Studio Archive. August 14, 2017. http://www.artistsarchives.org/
- ↑ Kelly, William. Art and Humanist Ideals: Contemporary Perspectives, Macmillan AU, 2003.
- ↑ Connelly, Debie, "Godfrey Recieves Lifetime Achievement Award," The Reporter, Cullowhee, NC. January 21, 2003.
- ↑ Manetti, Alessio, et al. Un segno per la Pace, Museo di Murlo/Comune di Murlo, G.F. Press, Pistola, 2002.
- ↑ Sozanski, Edward J. "Godfrey in Love," Philadelphia Inquirer. May 20, 2005.
- ↑ Newhall, Edith. "Black Mountain art and artists," Philadelphia Inquirer. July 14, 2006.
- ↑ Maddow Fans."Secretly Seeking At Curatorium: Susan's Art Showing in NY Beginning this Saturday," July 22, 2012. http://www.maddowfans.com/
- ↑ Rogovoy, Seth. "Asheville Artists Featured at Curatorium Gallery," The Rogovoy Report. May 8, 2013. http://www.rogovoyreport.com/
- ↑ Essen, Jennifer. "Fire and Water: Passions burn in the art of Robert Godfrey," Morning Star, Greenville, NC. January 11, 1991.
- ↑ Carr, Jeffery. "Nifty Stories," Robert Godfrey: Nifty Stories, Bridgette Mayer Gallery. Philadelphia, 2005.
- ↑ Viksjo, Cathy. "From neo- to neon, it's art," The Times, Trenton, NJ. October 7, 1990.
- ↑ Godfrey, Robert. (2003, December). On the Art of Compassion. Presented at the First Annual Gathering About Art And Peace, Basque Country (Gernika, San Sebastián, Vitoria), Spain. Archived in the Gernika-Lumo Kultur Etxea, Spain.
External Links[edit]
- Official Website
- Oral History | arts,etc.: Robert Godfrey
- Robert Godrey - Asheville Art Museum
- Humanist Manifesto | Art and Humanist Ideas: Contemporary Perspectives- William Kelly- Google Books
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