ALAN FELTUS
"[...] I was working with a reduced range of color and value, and a pervasive quiet. Fresco color is how Lennart Anderson described my color. It was a kind of tonality I had to have, unlike the chromatic qualities in my painting from observation in undergraduate school when I was pretty much matching the color of the setups we were working from. Over the years the color in my paintings has gained in depth and richness. The quiet I had in my paintings back then, however, has remained always. I had to have that quiet. It was something that all the painters I loved most had in common. I wanted to try to paint a silence that was more evident, or more subtly intrusive, than a sense of stillness. I thought about it as a piercing silence. Could a silence have the same power as a scream, I wondered. I was aware of Francis Bacon’s screaming Pope paintings that had grown out of a still from Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 film, The Battleship Potemkin. I wanted to understand better what a painting could do to create what we might perceive as a sound, or as complete silence. I made a few small paintings of a head with its mouth open, as though screaming, but without the sound such an image suggests. And then I realized it was the painting itself that could become the silent scream I was thinking about, and not the head of a man painted as though screaming. It was a heightened sense of stillness that I wanted, that could be there when all the elements in a painting are carefully considered and repainted as many times as it takes for them to feel right in shape and color and in their interrelationships with one another."
Excerpt from Alan Feltus' memoir.
1960s - 1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
Evolution of a Painting
Four Figures, Annunciation, 1975
58 ¼ x 70 inches, oil on linen
Two and a Half, 1974
61 1/2 X 43 in, oil on linen
White Cabinet, (Two Women on a Bed), 1975
oil on linen
Lina, 1976
16 x 15 inches, oil on canvas
The 1970s
Two Women, Two Chairs, 1978-'79
60 ½ x40 ⅕ inches,oil on linen
Two Nude Women, One Reclining One Sitting, 1973
72 X 60 inches, oil on linen
Sunday Morning, 1978
72 X 78 inches, oil on linen
Four Women, 1978
59 x 69 inches, oil on linen
Waiting, 1975-'76
oil on linen
Aspettando, 1976
22 X 18 inches, oil on linen
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Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome [1970-1972]
"[...] In the course of those two years in Rome my paintings finally found a direction that felt right. The period of experimentation and searching for what I could see as being from inside me was more or less over. I knew I wanted to paint figure paintings that had in them everything I had internalized from the painters I most admired. I painted by the daylight that came in through the very large window in my studio and at the end of the day, sitting on my studio cot as the light diminished I saw the gray wall behind the figures in my paintings disappear and the figures would seem to inhabit the deep space of my studio itself and appear to be quite real in that dim light. The sound of the noon cannon somewhere in the distance always rattled the glass of my studio window, breaking the silence I was working within, telling me lunch would soon follow. It was one of the things that characterized place and time in those most important two years while I was there."
Excerpt from Alan Feltus' Memoir
Three Nude Women and Chair, 1970
69 3⁄4 x 95 1⁄4 inches, oil on linen
Collection of Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Seated Man and Woman, 1971
61 ½ x 67 inches, oil on linen
Four Women, One Reclining, 1972
71 3/4 X 62 inches, oil on linen (unfinished state, photographed in black and white)
Four Women, One Seated With Olive Branch, 1971
79 ½ x 69 ½ inches, oil on linen
Two Women, One Seated, and Window, 1971
83 1/4 X 62 inches, oil on linen
Two Women and Table, 1972
61 x 65 ½ inches, oil on linen
Three Graces, 1971
60 X 56 1/4 inches, oil on linen (photographed in black and white)
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Graduate School
[1967-1968]
'[...] I knew well the paintings by Arshile Gorky and Willem de Kooning whose work started with a period of learning and searching to find themselves by imitating and absorbing all they could from painters they admired. Gorky was, as he put it “with Cézanne”, making paintings that were very strongly influenced by Cézanne, and then he and de Kooning and John Graham were working in their very beautiful figure painting period that had a strong impact on my graduate school paintings. From there Gorky’s paintings moved into a kind of abstraction that was his own personal imagery coming from his Armenian childhood memories and his interest in European Surrealism as well as from the great painters he studied in the Metropolitan Museum and elsewhere. His work didn’t change abruptly as it moved from one genre to another. He kept his delicate scumbling of light color over darker color and his very elegant sense of form and line that allowed his paintings to flow and develop in a most natural way. And de Kooning’s paintings also moved into transitions from his early figures influenced by Ingres and early European and American modernism into very related and very beautiful forms of abstraction no longer reading as figures, but figure-like forms nonetheless, and then into a wilder and more agitated abstract figure period before becoming completely abstract. Until his last paintings made when he was suffering from dementia, de Kooning remained a very fine painter. When there is a true commitment and passion behind one’s paintings, those paintings are going to be good at any stage in a career.'
Excerpt from Alan Feltus' Memoir
French Mime, 1967
44 x 68 inches, oil on linen
Man Standing, Lady Sitting, 1967
41 x 60 ½ inches, oil on linen
Graham Man, 1967
24 x 27 ½ inches, oil on linen
Lady and Torse, 1967
55 x 59 inches, oil on linen
Three Figures, 1968
32 x 30 inches, oil on linen
Horses, 1968
61 x 78 1⁄4 inches, oil on linen
Untitled, or "The Gorky that Gorky Never Painted", 1966
uncertain dimensions, oil on linen
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The 1980s
"[...] strangely, I found myself back in the city where I was born but had never visited after my infancy until I began teaching drawing and painting [at American University] in September 1972."
Excerpt from Alan Feltus' Memoir
The Day Lily Room, 1987
48 x 70 inches, oil on linen
August, 1983
66 x 44 inches, oil on linen
Collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Roman Window, 1983
70 x 48 inches, oil on linen
Something About a Letter, 1987
70 x 48 inches, oil on linen
Three Women with Pear, 1981-'82
70 x 48 inches, oil on linen
Umbria, 1986
36 x 28 inches, oil on linen
Woman with a letter, 1980–1981
28 x 20 inches, oil on canvas
Airplane, The Sullivan Sisters, 1983
36 X 24 inches,oil on linen (photographed in black and white)
One Afternoon in Tuscany, 1986
70 x 48 inches, alkyd & oil on linen
Room with a Bed, 1986
66 x 44 inches, oil on linen
The Landscape Painting, 1986
70 x 48 inches, alkyd & oil on linen (photographed in black and white)
Two Women Standing, Greensleeves, 1982
oil on linen
Untitiled, (Portrait of a Young Woman), 1986-'87
oil & alcyd over lithograph on Arches paper (photographed in black and white)
Two Women Blue Socks & Green Sleeves, 1981–1982
48 x 36 inches,oil on canvas laid on board
Another Summer, 1984
48 x 36 inches, oil on linen
Performer II, 1980
40 x 30 inches, oil on canvas
Collection of Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Self Portrait, 1986
28 x 36 inches, oil on linen
The Room With Rose Wallpaper, 1987
48 x 70 inches, oil on linen
Padova, 1986
48 x 40 inches, oil on linen
Venice II, 1982
30 x 24 inches, oil on linen (photographed in black and white)
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MotherSelf
'[...] In 1993 I started a series of paintings about myself with my mother. The theme was somewhat related to Gorky’s mother and son paintings, but it was unlike those in that what I wanted to do was to see if I could better understand how I managed to survive the very difficult relationship I had with my mother. It began while I was painting a single female figure and finding that her face was more like my own than often the faces in my paintings would be. She was becoming me as a female figure, but younger and more beautiful. I was looking at myself in a mirror, as I do instead of working from a model. While I continued to work on the painting I thought to title it Motherself. And near the top of the painting I copied a postcard of Carlo Carrà’s Metaphysical period painting titled Mother and Son, tucked behind a panel, partly hidden. In the Carrà both the mother and her son are mannequins. While most often I title my paintings after they are finished, this time was different. And as I was painting Motherself, I thought it might be interesting to see what would come of making several paintings that would be about myself with my mother.'
Excerpt from Alan Feltus' Memoir
Motherself, 1993
39 ¼ x 27 inches, oil on linen
Cityspace, 1993
31 ½ x 39 ¼ inches, oil on linen
Mélancolie, 1993
35 ¼ x 39 ¼ inches, oil on linen
The Rose Room, 1995
42 ½ x 31 ½ inches, oil on linen
Once Upon A Time, 1993
47 1⁄4 x 63 inches, oil on linen
First Coffee, 1998
23 ½ x 29 ½ inches, oil on linen
Mother and Child, 1993
39 ¼ x 31 ½ inches, oil on linen
Awakenings, 1993
31 ½ x 39 ¼ inches, oil on linen
La Nostalgia del Figlio, 1993
39 x 51 inches, oil on linen
Seventeen and Forty-Three in Sixty, 1993
39 x 39 inches, oil on linen
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The 1990s
Gifts of Silence, 1995
47 ¼ x39 ¼ inches, oil on linen
Amor, 1990
39 ½ x 31 ½ inches, oil on linen
Hotel Paradiso, 1999
39 ¼ x 47 ¼ inches, oil on linen
Downstairs Room, 1991
35 ¼ x 39 ½ inches, oil on linen
Fair August, 1999
59 ¼ x 39 ½ inches, oil on linen
Giotto Earthquake Portrait, 1998
22 ⅝ x 15 ⅜ inches, oil on linen
Invitation, 1995
39 ¼ x 59 ¼ inches, oil on linen
Love Letters, 1990-'91
39 ½ x 31 ½ inches, oil on linen
Moment Between, 1994
39 ¼ x55 inches, oil on linen
Nala with Green Sash, 1999
43 ¼ x 31 ½ inches, oil on linen
Preparing for Evening, 1997
47 ¼ x 39 ⅜ inches, oil on linen
The Angel of Santa Felicità, 1994
23 ½ x 29 ½ inches, oil on linen
The Flower of Venus, 1994
oil on canvas
31 ½ x 39 ½ inches, oil on linen
The Secret, 1995
43 1/2 x 31 1/2 inches, oil on linen
Sharing Precious Distance, 1993
47 1⁄4 x 63 inches, oil on linen
The Red Hat, 1991
27 ½ x 35 ½ inches, oil on linen
Alexandra's Mirror, 1999
31 ½ x 43 ¼ inches, oil on linen
Autumn Self Portrait, Assisi Earthquake, 1997
22 ⅝ x 15 ⅜ inches, oil on linen
Desires, 1996
31 ½ x39 ½ inches, oil on linen
Duality, 1991
47 ¼ x 39 ½ inches, oil on linen
First Love, 1998
39 ⅜ x 39 ⅜ inches, oil on linen
Gorky's Mother, 1995
23 ½ x 29 ½ inches, oil on linen
Judith, 1995
27 ½ x 19 ½ inches, oil on linen
Mediterranean Summer, 1990
27 ¾ x 25 ¾ inches, oil on linen
The Queen of Hearts, 1994
39 ½ x 27 ½ inches, oil on linen
Piero Letters, 1991
39 ¼ x 47 ¼ inches, oil on linen
Summer (Self Portrait), 1997
17 ¾ x 13 ¾ inches, on poplar panel
The Dancer from Monte Castello, 1996-'97
29 ½ x 23 ⅝ inches, oil on linen
The Reader, 1991
35 ½ x 27 ½ inches, oil on linen
The Space Between, 1992
39 ¼ x 55 inches, oil on linen
Coffee and Memories in the Land of Love, 1992
46 ¾ x 62 1/2 inches, oil on linen
Altachiara, 1991
27 ½ x 35 ½ inches, oil on linen
Dancers, 1991
27 ½ x 39 ½ inches, oil on linen
Double Portrait, 1999
39 ½ x 31 ½ inches, oil on linen
Early Morning, 1995
31 ½ x 43 ½ inches, oil on linen
Gallery Tea, 1991
39 ¼ x 39 ¼ inches, oil on linen
In the Studio, 1995
39 ¼ x 55 ¼ inches, oil on linen
Last Dance, 1998
31 ½ x 43 ¼ inches, oil on linen
Memories, 1992
27 ½ x 39 ¼ inches, oil on linen
Monday, 1997
43 ¼ x31 ½ inches, oil on linen
Portfolio, 1996
29 ½ x 23 ⅝ inches, oil on linen
Sylvia, 1999
19 ½ x 23 ½ inches, oil on linen
The Diary, 1997
31 ½ x 43 ¼ inches, oil on linen
The Rose, 1998
31 ½ x 43 ¼ inches, oil on linen
Unanswered Questions, 1991
39 ½ x 39 ½ inches, oil on linen
Near Distance, 1992-'93
39 ¼ x 55 inches, oil on linen
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Mr. and Mrs. Jones, 2001
39 ¼ x 31 ½ inches, oil on linen
As Though by Themselves, 2003
59 ¼ x 39 ½ inches, oil on linen
Guest Bed, 2001
43 ¼ x 31 ¼ inches, oil on linen
Hillary and Lauren, 2003
43 ¼ x 31 ½ inches, oil on canvas
From Page to Memory, 2004-'05
39 ⅜ x 47 ¼ inches, oil on linen
La Lettera III, 2008, 22 ½ x 17 ¼ inches, oil on paper over lithograph
Letters, 2005
23 5/8 x 29 1/2 inches, oil on linen
Mermaid's Story, 2003
31 1/2 x 43 1/4 inches, oil on linen
Mute Sirens, 2004
47 1/4 x 39 1/4 inches, oil on linen
Olivia, 2001,
12 x 10 inches, oil on linen
Self Portrait, Fall of 2001, 2001
43 ⅛ x 31 ½ inches, oil on linen
The Most Delicate of Times, 2006
47 ¼ x 39 ¼ inches, oil on linen
The Poet's Dream, 2002
43 ¼ x 31 ½ inches, oil on linen
Time Together, 2001
59 x 39 1/2 inches, oil on canvas
Two Chairs, Two Trees, Two Arms, 2002
23 ½ x 29 ½ inches, oil on linen
Wife and Words, 2004
31 ½ x 39 ½ inches, oil on linen
Without Time, Without Place, 2000
39 ¼ x 47 ⅛ inches, oil on linen
Pale Moon, 2002
29 3/4 x 23 1/2 inches, oil on linen
The 2000s
Two Ties, 2001
31 ¼ x43 ¼ inches, oil on linen
Prelude, 2008
47 ¼ x 39 ¼ inches, oil on canvas
Inner Voices, 2006
47 ¼ x 39 ¼ inches, oil on linen
Il Giornale, 2009
31 ½ x 43 ¼ inches, oil on canvas
Insomnia, 2008
39 ¼ x 47 ¼ inches, oil on canvas
La Nebbia, 2007
22 x 20 inches, oil on canvas
Le Sorelle, 2005
47 1/4 x 39 3/8 inches, oil on linen
Morning Light, 2002
43 ¼ x 31 ½ inches, oil on canvas
No Words Could Explain, 2008-09
31 ½ x 43 ¼ inches, oil on canvas
Passage, 2008
24 x 20 inches, oil on canvas
Studio Days, 2004
43.25 x 31.50 in, oil on linen
The Painter and His Muse, 2000
43 ⅜ x 31 ½ inches, oil on linen
The Red Jacket, 2008
43 ¼ x 31 ½ inches, oil on canvas
Traveler, 2008
20 X 22 inches, oil on linen
Two Landscapes, 2002
12 x 11 ⅛ inches, oil on linen
2004 Summer, 2004
39 1/2 x47 ¼ inches, oil on canvas
Cups, 2005
23 5/8 X 29 1/2 inches, oil on linen
Curtains, 2005
23 5/8 X 29 1/2 inches, oil on linen
A Sharing of Coffee and Letters, 2001
43 1/4 x 31 1/2 inches, oil on linen
Behind Mt. Subasio, 2000-'01
39 ¼ x 47 ¼ inches, oil on linen
Inner Voices II , 2007
47 1/4 x 39 1/4 inches, oil on canvas
Equilibria, 2002
39 ¼ x 47 1/4, oil on linen
Journals, 2008
43 ⅓ x 31 ½ inches, oil on canvas
Landscape Painter, 2002
23 ½ x 29 ½ inches, oil on linen
Low Hangs the Moon, 2002
39 1/2 x 47 1/2 inches, oil on linen
Morning Mail, 2004
43 ¼ x 31 ½ inches, oil on canvas
Olaf and Anya, 2006
47 ¼ x 39 ¼ inches, oil on linen
Puppeteer, 2008
43 ¼ x 31 ½ inches, oil on canvas
The Green Pencil, 2003
29 ½ x 23 1/2, oil on linen
The Poet and His Muse, 1999-2000
39 ⅜ x 47 ¼ inches, oil on linen
Time Suspended, 2003
47 ¼ x 39 ¼ inches, oil on linen
Tuscana, 2005
11 ⅞ x 8 inches, oil on linen
Two Letters, 2008
29 ½ x 23 ⅓ inches, oil on canvas
Winter Morning, 2001
12 x 13 ¾ inches, oil on linen
Self Portrait With Graces, 2000
19,5 x 23,5 inches, oil on linen
Self-Portrait, Green Scarf, Red Hat, 2001
12 x 10 inches, oil on linen
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Books, 2015
31 3/8 x 43 3/8 inches, oil on linen
The Dreaming Gypsy, 2016
43 3/8 x 31 3/8 inches, oil on linen
And Now, What, 2013 47 1⁄4 x 39 1⁄4 inches, oil on linen
If I Were Young Again, 2012
43 3/8 X 31 3/8 inches, oil on linen
The Fabbro's Wife and the Girl From Nowhere, 2011
43 ¼ x 31 ⅞ inches, oil on linen
The Young Man and the Flower Lady, 2010
48 x 39 ⅞ inches, oil on linen
Celia, 2012
15 ¾ x 11 ¾ inches, oil on linen
Giovanna Battista, 2013
19 ⅝ x19 ⅝ inches, oil on linen
The 2010s
Summer Evening, 2014,
22 X 19 inches, oil on paper
La Nostalgia, 2014-2015
29 ½ x 23 ½ inches, oil on linen
Family Matters, 2016
47 1/4 X 39 1/4 inches, oil on linen
Carmen's Rose, 2016
39 1/4 X 47 1/8 inches, oil on linen
The Red Chair, 2013
47 ¼ x 39 ¼ inches, oil on linen
Together, 2014-2015
29 ½ x 23 ½ inches, oil on linen
Minku's Inescapable Space, 2010
22 ⅞ x 28 ⅞ inches, oil on linen
In Balance, 2014
13 3/4 X 13 3/4 inches, oil on linen
Letters, 2014
47 1/4 X 39 1/4 inches, oil on linen
Between the Lines, 2010
22 ⅞ x 28 ⅞ inches, oil on linen
What Thoughts Do They Hide, 2010-11
39 ⅜ x 47 ¼ inches, oil on linen
Stopped by a Shared Moment, 2012
43 ¼ x 31 ½ inches, oil on linen
The Red Ribbon, 2013
47 1⁄4 x 39 1⁄4 inches, oil on linen
Before Evening, 2014
21 5/8 X 23 5/8 inches, oil on linen
La Lettera, 2013
17 ⅜ x 19 ⅝ inches, oil on linen
City, 2012
17 ⅝ x 17 ⅝ inches, oil on linen
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Nine stages in the evolution of an Alan Feltus painting:
'Three Women with Pear', [1981-1982]
"[...] It is part of the development of every painting that it moves into chaos before emerging again into something acceptable. A metamorphosis has to take place. I search for the anatomical structure of a figure. Limbs and torsos and heads turn and move to new positions as the two figures work out their interrelationships within the confines of the edges of the canvas. It goes on like that for several weeks before anything starts to take on anything like a final position or definition of form.
[...] I might begin a painting with only a vague sense that it will have one or two figures. I begin directly with paint and without having made preliminary drawings on paper. I’ll put down a few tentative lines to indicate the position of a figure; a torso and its limbs delicately stated in a pale color so that what lines I put down I can shift or paint out while they they are still wet, or paint over easily after they dry. Then maybe a second figure enters and there will be an interaction between the two. And then maybe I'll put in an indication of the placement of a chair, or the division between wall and floor. At first what is starting to take form on the canvas is only minimal, but it will be enough that in my mind I can begin to see what it might become. Over a period of days things will appear and squirm and alter, and they may disappear, or they may remain But what remains will be changed from how they were at the start. And this will continue for weeks or months.
[...] with each change other possibilities would become apparent. In this way the game unfolds and any painting in progress becomes interesting to work with. It can be exciting and it can be frustratingly difficult. A painting can lose what it had the day before, or the hour before [...]. I might turn a head or move an arm or change the whole space in such a way as to see it anew, with different possibilities to follow where they might lead. I go on automatic part of the time while painting, other times I bring all my critical abilities into play. I think of painting as a meditation. It is the only form of meditation I want in my life, the only relatively inactive part of a waking day I am able to accept, and the only thing I have endless patience with.
[...] My larger paintings take months to complete and go through a thousand small changes in addition to several quite big changes. A figure can disappear, or a figure can appear that wasn't there to begin with. A head turns, eyes shift in the direction of their gaze, an arm shifts, a book or a cup on a table will move. The table moves. A nude gets dressed or a dressed figure sheds her clothing. A chair turns to face the other direction. A wall moves back and a shadow divides it diagonally. Its color changes. A window becomes a landscape painting, or it is painted out.
[...] Painting without models posing for me was a choice I made early on. I wouldn't have wanted my paintings to look like paintings of models in the way, for example, Philip Pearlstein's paintings do. Of course that doesn't have to be the case when painting from the model, and there were other reasons for me to work without a model. As a young painter on a very small teaching salary I couldn't afford to pay models to pose for me and I didn't want to ask friends to pose, but more than that I liked my studio time uncomplicated by the presence of another person. I value the solitude of my painting time. And I want to invent my figures as my paintings evolve. Finding the form of a figure is far more difficult without having a model to refer to than being able to look at a model.
[...] In our own paintings and drawings we might put the importance of figure and object before the space they occupy, but if we aren't at the same time describing the relationships between those things within a space we are missing something essential to good drawing and painting."
Excerpts from Alan Feltus' Memoir
Three Women with Pear, 1981-'82
70 x 48 inches, oil on linen
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