In his new paintings, Paul Waldman envisions and meticulously describes remote landscapes unpopulated but for small figures in the air. They generally appear to be falling but here and there streak upwards, ride the air currents or come in for a landing. The weather is portentous in these picture... Read more
In his new paintings, Paul Waldman envisions and meticulously describes remote landscapes unpopulated but for small figures in the air. They generally appear to be falling but here and there streak upwards, ride the air currents or come in for a landing. The weather is portentous in these pictures with dramatic clouds contrasting across the panels of Waldman’s diptychs with perfect sun and clouds, calm waters or an otherworldly “red planet” atmosphere.
Despite several titles that refer to specific places, these are landscapes of the imagination. They could be anywhere there are oceans, vast spaces and distant hills. Their immense emptiness is poignant and conveys a sense of loss. The playfulness of the falling figures suggests no peril but liberation from the laws of gravity. They could be souls. Not angels, though, because those are hanging from the rafters.
A flock of angels is suspended from the ceiling. They are painted ceramic figures with fluffy feathered wings that are often rudely un-angelic. A little over a foot long, they are variously obese, blue, scratching their heads, giving birth or grimacing, hermaphroditic or androgynous. They embody the distortions of pudgy foreshortened angels of painters from Michelangelo to Tiepolo to Rubens. Rather more profane than sacred, Waldman’s angels take their place in the ongoing evolution of a cast of characters that has included dwarves, pensive men with antlers and cloven feet, girls with tails, woman with penises and camels with hair.
This is Paul Waldman’s third exhibition at Lennon, Weinberg. A veteran of the New York artworld, he showed for many years with Leo Castelli Gallery and Blum Helman. He lives and works in New York and Southampton and travels yearly to India to add to his collection of Buddhas and Indian miniature paintings.
