A frightening wonderland in pastel
The Weekly Volcano, June 28. 2012
Top: "The Last Kiss," Bottom: "Templar Choir." Both paintings by Ric Hall and Ron Schmitt courtesy B2 Gallery
by Alec Clayton
This
duo at B2 Gallery is a modern Vaudeville act in pastel, inventive, sometimes
frightening and often moving. It’s Ric Hall and Ron Schmitt, two artists who
have now spent years collaborating on pastel paintings. I use the term
“painting” because even though pastel is a chalk, a drawing media, what they do
with it is painting in concept and appearance. And it is marvelous. They create
an Alice-down-the-rabbit-hole world as illustrated by Pablo Picasso and the
German Expressionists.
In
the first place, it is marvelous that two men can work simultaneously on a
painting without pre-planning or discussion and come up with something
attractive and unified. To add onto that cohesive statements about love, life,
sex and religion is really mind-boggling.
I
have reviewed Hall and Schmitt shows many times in the past and have enjoyed
them all. This is possibly the biggest show of their work I’ve yet to see and
the gallery space at B2 is large enough to show their work without crowding it.
There is also greater variety to the work than in any of their previous shows. That’s
the good part. The bad part is that on the day I attended the show there was so
much glare and reflection on the paintings in the front room that it was almost
impossible to see them.
They
have always shown surrealistic images of figures — usually multiple figures,
and often with extra body parts, such as two faces sharing a single eye or two
bodies with seven or eight hands. There is plenty of that in this show, but
there are also a number of single-figure images, which I don’t recall ever
seeing before, and there are some religious images such as an almost
traditional Pieta and a painting of Jesus walking on water titled “Mathew:
14-26.”
And there are some massive carved wood statues by Hall that are quite
impressive.
Their
color palate is generally very dark with a preponderance of blues and purples.
Their imagery often deals with sex or violence. They break figures apart and
rearrange them in a Cubist fashion. Some of the imagery can be unapologetically
disturbing; yet, as they say in a video that plays in a continuous loop, in
which they talk about their work, nobody ever complains about being offended.
A
few of my favorite works are:
“Last
Kiss,” two figures kissing with faces broken apart as if in stop-motion
photography so they appear to have five or six faces (I tried actually counting
them but I couldn’t, you’ll see what I mean.)
“Queen
Ida,” a massive single female figure, nude, with eight hands grasping parts of
her body. It has the monumentality of some of Picasso’s neo-classical figures.
“The
Evening’s Events Left Everyone With a Clue,” another kissing couple. The woman
has a tiny head and the man has gigantic fish lips. And there is a nude figure
that is hidden in the background. I didn’t even see it at first, but once it
pops out it is undeniable.
And
“Putting Away the Goods,” a Roman soldier carrying his severed head in a box and
a Cleopatra with a drawer in her chest a la Salvador Dali that opens to expose
her breasts.
After
years of seeing their work, Hall and Schmitt continue to amaze me.
[B2 Fine Art Gallery, 11
a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and till 8 p.m. Third Thursdays, through July 28, 711
St. Helens Avenue, Tacoma, 253.238.5065]
M
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