George Chemeche, Expressionist French Israeli Modern Oil Painting Chelsea Hotel, George Chemeche, 1966

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This is a bright, colorful modernist oil painting of a vase of Flowers A great floral work. George Chemeche was … Read more This is a bright, colorful modernist oil painting of a vase of Flowers A great floral work. George Chemeche was born in Basra, Iraq in 1934 He emigrated to Israel and studied at the Avni Art School in Tel Aviv and the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. He moved to New York city in 1972. This painter and printmaker's sensual and romantic yet rationally conceived screen prints featuring plants and flowers are associated with the Pattern & Decoration movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The movement has sometimes been referred to as "P&D" or as The New Decorativeness. The movement was championed by the gallery owner Holly Solomon. The Pattern and Decoration movement was influenced by sources outside of what was considered to be fine art. Blurring the line between art and design, many P&D works mimic patterns like those on wallpapers, printed fabrics, and quilts. These artists also looked for inspiration outside of the United States. The influence of Islamic tile work from Spain and North Africa are visible in the geometric, floral patterns. They looked at Mexican, Roman, and Byzantine mosaics; Turkish embroidery, Japanese woodblocks; and Iranian and Indian carpets and miniatures. They often retained the same 'flattening grid' frequently employed by Minimalism and Minimalist painters. In 2008 the Hudson River Art Museum in Yonkers, NY arranged a major exhibition entitled "Pattern and Decoration: An Ideal Vision in American Art, 1975-1985," which sought to reestablish its reputation as a serious movement. There is a close connection between the Pattern and Decoration movement, Feminism and the feminist art movement. The P&D movement arose in opposition to the Minimalist and Conceptualist movements, which valued austerity and demeaned ornamentation and craft. n in 2019 Anna Katz curated the museum exhibit With Pleasure: Pattern and Decoration in American Art 1972–1985 which ran at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles from October 27, 2019 – May 18, 2020. Participating artists included Brad Davis, Valerie Jaudon, Joyce Kozloff, Robert Kushner, Kim MacConnel, Miriam Schapiro and Robert Zakanitch. His style is non-minimalist, sensuous, romantic, rational and decorative. it runs counter to the modernist taboo against a decorative quality in art. Though pattern painting's roots are in modern art, it contradicts some of its basic tenets as it attempts to assimilate aspects of Western and non-Western culture not previously accepted into the realm of high art. In Chemeche´s work, we can see how chosen motifs are repeated in order to cover a surface in a uniform way. The results often have a painterly feel, but remain systematic. The intention is to make a high-art statement within a contemporary context by referring to, and using what to many still remains within the world of non-art. Pattern painting, unlike abstractionism, has structure. It also has content as it refers to patterns in the real world. Usually, patterning intentionally acknowledges the decorative function of art, reconciling both the decorative and the meaningful. George's work hangs in the lobby of the Hotel Chelsea where many have admired it for years. Last year, we had the pleasure of hearing George read his poems of life and love in the Chelsea at the Bowery Poetry Club. Like many Chelsea residents, George was a long time member of McBurney Y until they moved to 14th St. INDIVIDUAL EXHIBITIONS: Goldman Art Gallery, Haifa, Israel Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv, "Six Artists" Biv Gallery, New York, "Chelsea Artists" Makler Gallery, Philadelphia, Pa. "FJ.A.C.," Petit Palais Paris Galerie Naire, Paris Weintraub Gallery, New York, Print Show Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York Alexandra Monett Gallery, Brussels Givon Art Gallery, Tel Aviv South Houston Gallery, New York Ray Landis Gallery, East Brunswick, New Jersey Gala Gallery, Key Biscayne, Florida Art Asia Gallery, Cambridge, Mass. Bertha Urdang Gallery, New York Selected Artists Gallery, New York Mabat Art Gallery, Tel Aviv Goldman Art Gallery, Haifa, Israel OHana Gallery, London "Six Artists", Modern Art Gallery, Old Jaffa Modern Art Gallery, Old Jaffa The Autumn Exhibition, Tel Aviv Museum Dugith Art Gallery, Tel Aviv Hadassa "K" Klachkin Art Gallery, Tel Aviv Rina Art Gallery, Jerusalem The Museum of Modern Art, Haifa Chemerinsky Art Gallery, Tel Aviv Galerie Transposition, Paris Collective Exhibitions "Young Artists", Tel Aviv Museum Salon de La Jeune Peinture, Musee d'art Moderne, Paris A well listed Painter, sculptor, and printmaker ( see Davenport's, the Benezit, etc.) working in an abstract expressionist modernist style like that of Raymond Parker, Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner and Elaine de Kooning. Known as a member of the pattern and decoration movement of the late 1960's and early 70's his work is in the collections of the Guggenheim, MOMA, Fogg Art Museum and the Muse d' Art Moderne (Paris) Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York amongst others. See less