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James McGarrell Falconer Self Portrait
James McGarrell Night and Day
James McGarrell Oceanside
James McGarrell Beached Boat
James McGarrell Farm Fire
James McGarrell Double Self Portrait, Bedroom
James McGarrell Double Self Portrait Bison
James McGarrell Strand
James McGarrell Scarlatti
James McGarrell Shower
James McGarrell Flight
James McGarrell Haystack
James McGarrell Audition
James McGarrell Jukebox
James McGarrell Assault
James McGarrell Tub
James McGarrell Crows
James McGarrell Etna
James McGarrell Flatlands
James McGarrell Biker
James McGarrell Tasting
James McGarrell Erigone
James McGarrell Behemoths
James McGarrell Roadside
James McGarrell Program
James McGarrell Valley
James McGarrell Shore
James McGarrell Storm
James McGarrell Salon
James McGarrell Cookstove
James McGarrell Twisters
James McGarrell:Small Paintings and Glazed Porcelain Tiles
James McGarrell:Small Paintings and Glazed Porcelain Tiles

Press Release

Sep 12 - Oct 12, 2002

During September and October the George Adams Gallery will present new work by James McGarrell.  The exhibition will feature new small canvases and recent works in blue and white porcelain tile. This exhibition is McGarrell's 19th one-man show at the gallery since 1961.

In a departure from his most recent exhibitions, which featured large-scale, multi-paneled paintings, the works included in this current exhibition are small - 10 x 10 inch - canvases. Although intimately scaled, the paintings are not sketches but fully developed and often carefully detailed narrative paintings. For example,  Erigone depicts a scene from classical Greek mythology, in which Erigone, the daughter of the discoverer of the recipe for wine, comes upon her father shortly after he has sampled the results of his labor. The small canvas depicts the two figures, one recumbent beside a wine vat in an orchard set in a lush Mediterranean landscape. In addition to the single canvases there are also several small-scale diptychs. Farm Fire, for example, depicts a conflagration seen through a barn door, and juxtaposes an interior with an exterior complete with farm animals in an 8 x 20-inch format.

Along with the canvases, the gallery will also show several works in blue and white porcelain tile. McGarrell first exhibited his glazed porcelain tiles in 1995, and recently began working on more complex compositions consisting of multiple tiles. Two of the more ambitious tile compositions,  Night and Day 2001, a 40-piece tile table top measuring 24 x 60 inches that is viewed from two sides, and Falconer Self Portrait, a landscape consisting of 24 tiles that measures18 x 48 inches, are both included in the current exhibition.

James McGarrell was born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1930. Only four years out of graduate school at UCLA, McGarrell was the youngest of the twenty-three artists exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art's controversial "New Images of Man" exhibition in 1959.  He has exhibited widely in both the United States and Europe, participating in five Whitney Museum Annuals and Biennials; two Carnegie International exhibitions; Documenta in Kassel, Germany; the Dunn International held at the Tate Gallery, London; "Modern American Paintings", Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston and the National Pinakothiki, Athens, Greece; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and the Venice Biennale. He currently lives and works in Newbury, Vermont.


Exhibition Checklist
beginning clockwise from reception desk:

1. Erigone, 2002
oil on linen
10 x 10 inches
JMp 85

2. Crows, 2002
oil on canvas
10 x 10 inches
JMp 98

3. Roadside, 2002
oil on canvas
10 x 10 inches
JMp 104

4. Flatlands, 2001
oil on canvas
8 x 10 inches
JMp 71

5. Strand, 2001
oil on canvas
8 x 10 inches
JMp 73

6. Program, 2001
oil on canvas
8 x 10 inches
JMp 69

7. Etna, 2001
oil on canvas
8 x 10 inches
JMp 68

8. Valley, 2001
oil on canvas
8 x 10 inches
JMp 70

9. Scarlatti, 2001
oil on canvas
8 x 10 inches
JMp 74

10. Tub, 2001
oil on canvas
8 x 10 inches
JMp 67

11. Flight, 2001
oil on canvas
8 x 10 inches
JMp 76

12. Double Self Portrait, Bison, 2001-2002
oil on canvas
diptych: 10 x 20 inches
JMp 78

13. Farm Fire, 2002
oil on linen
diptych: 10 x 20 inches
JMp 81

14. Double Self Portrait, Bedroom, 2001
oil on canvas
diptych: 10 x 20 inches
JMp 77

15. Twisters, 2002
oil on canvas
10 x 10 inches
JMp 99

16. Haystack, 2002
oil on linen
10 x 10 inches
JMp 86

17. Shower, 2002
oil on linen
10 x 10 inches
JMp 83

18. Jukebox, 2002
oil on linen
10 x 10 inches
JMp 88

19. Night and Day, 2001
glazed porcelain tile
24 x 60 inches
JMs 37

20. Falconer Self Portrait, 2001-2002
glazed porcelain tile
18 x 48 inches
JMs 38

21. Oceanside, 2002
oil on canvas
diptych: 10 x 20 inches
JMp 97

22. Beached Boat, 2002
oil on linen
diptych: 10 x 20 inches
JMp 82

23. Assault, 2002
oil on panel
8 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches
JMp 95

24. Shore, 2001
oil on panel
8 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches
JMp 89

25. Cookstove, 2002
oil on panel
8 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches
JMp 96

26. Storm, 2002
oil on panel
8 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches
JMp 90

27. Salon, 2002
oil on panel
8 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches
JMp 93

28. Behemoths, 2002
oil on panel
8 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches
JMp 94

29. Audition, 2002
oil on panel
8 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches
JMp 91

30. Biker, 2002
oil on canvas
10 x 10 inches
JMp 101

31. Tasting, 2002
oil on canvas
10 x 10 inches
JMp 102