Yale Bulletin and Calendar

March 19, 2004|Volume 32, Number 22

Like many of Charles Rain's paintings, "The Magic Hand" uses everyday objects to evoke the mysterious.

Exhibit features works by artist
who combined fact and fantasy
to achieve 'sense of isolated sadness'

From vegetables set amidst ancient ruins to a mannequin's hand holding a tarot card, ordinary objects take on deeper meanings in the paintings of American artist Charles Rain, whose works will be featured in the newest exhibition opening at Jonathan Edwards College (JE).

"Remembering Charles Rain: Selected Works from 1933-1973" will open on Thursday, March 25. A master's tea titled "Conversation with Henry Grady," featuring the executor of the Charles Rain Estate, will be held at 4 p.m. that day at the JE master's house, 70 High St. A reception and exhibition opening will follow 5-7 p.m. The events are free and open to the public.

The show is the latest of several exhibitions hosted by JE Master Gary Haller that feature the works of artists who have been labeled as "Magic Realists."

In her essay in the exhibition catalogue, consulting curator Daphne Anderson Deeds writes that "magic realism reorganizes the natural world, carefully selecting subjects and placing them in dramatic settings that suggest melancholic, mysterious or nostalgic meanings. ... It partakes of a particular modernist sensibility that is akin to an existentialist awareness. Its deep shadows and orchestrated subject matter place the viewer in a world of heightened self-consciousness and potential menace, a world not unlike that of the alienated figures of modern literature ..."

In fact, she notes, Rain wrote of his art: "I feel that the individual's isolation and loneliness are concomitants of modern existence; and with this conviction I endeavor to combine fact and fantasy, often with a sense of isolated sadness."

As a young art student, Rain was interested in abstract art; however, he moved toward realism after a trip to Europe, where he became enamored of the works of Italian and Flemish masters. He was strongly influenced by New York artist Charles Gilbert, a champion of pictorial realism who was Rain's mentor from 1946 to 1965.

In his catalogue essay, "Memories of Charles Rain," Henry Grady describes the painter as "an unusually disciplined artist whose life revolved around his craft. He enjoyed more than 40 productive years as a painter and worked as if every moment counted. With an eye for detail and a photographic mind, he mentally recorded everything in his environment. Then his imagination would take over as he conveyed in his paintings the images from his surroundings."

Rain worked on wood panels covered in gesso, using a technique he adapted from his mentor. "After he had assembled the elements to be included in a composition and laid out the general outline he would apply thin layers of color, one on top of the other in a system of underpainting and glazing done with brushes often having only two or three bristles. ...," writes Grady. "In terms of output, such laborious detail meant that at times only small fractions of an inch might be painted each day. As a result, Rain could spend six months or more completing a single painting."

Although Rain was a handsome man who occasionally modeled for other artists, Grady describes him as "an outsider on the New York art scene" who preferred being on the "fringes" of the close-knit circle of his contemporaries. "Instead of artists his close friends were writers, actors, dancers or photographers whom he frequently joined for dinner at a Horn & Hardart Automat on East 42nd Street," writes Grady.

"Remembering Charles Rain" will be on view through May 25 at the JE master's house, 70 High St. The exhibition is open most Thursdays or by appointment; call (203) 432-0356 for more information. Admission is free.

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Robert Blocker has been reappointed to third term . . .

Center to foster research on cerebral cortex

Bulldogs' Nate Lawrie busy preparing himself for NFL Draft

Political scientist Ian Shapiro named YCIAS director

Zbigniew Brzezinski . . . to present talk on campus

Magic, comic mayhem prevail in re-telling of old tale

'Digital Cops in a Virtual Environment' will explore . . .

Conference to consider 'The Future of Secularism'

Exhibit features works by artist who combined fact and fantasy . . .

NIDA director discusses complicated causes . . . of drug addiction

Castle Lectures to explore materialism in today's culture

English faculty to present staged reading of 'Pentecost'

'Enclave' to explore architectural aspects of ports of commerce

In Focus: Office of Cooperative Research