Dante: The Way Of All Flesh
Ford projects, new york, ny
november 8 - december 21, 2012
Female Shade (Linen), 2012
oil on linen, 64” x 46”
Dante: The Way Of All Flesh is a meditation on the human condition, using Dante Alighieri’s Inferno as a point of departure. Comprised of oil paintings and watercolors, Cronin continues Dante’s exploration of justice and revenge using her own expressive language. This new cycle of figurative works are representative of the artist’s response to our current global circumstances. By focusing on the human form, Cronin reinforces the concept of our shared humanity, albeit from the perspective of a disillusioned present.
The painterly figures that Cronin creates take their visual cues from over seven centuries of artistic interpretations, beginning with 14th century illuminated manuscripts up to Italian fashion magazines, in addition to tracings of the artist’s own body and her archive of personal photographs taken throughout Italy. With a deft understanding of her materials, Cronin allows the figures to take shape in natural states and creates surfaces with both bold and meticulous strokes. With an intense palette of reds, oranges, cool blues and purples, the artist depicts the dead and the hell of their own design.
Works
Bleach Portraits, 2012
bleach on colored paper, 14” x 10” (each)
Canto XXXIV: Complex Fraud, 2011
oil on linen, 64” x 138”
Female Shade 1 (Orange), 2012
oil on linen, 46” x 64”
Female Shade 1 (Violet), 2010
watercolor on paper, 41” x 30”
Female Shade 2 (Orange), 2012
oil on linen, 42” x 60”
Female Shade 2 (Violet), 2010
watercolor on paper, 41” x 30”
Frozen Floor of Hell Triptych, 2010
watercolor on paper, 60” x 120”
Male Shade (Black), 2010
watercolor on paper, 41” x 30”
oil on linen, 64” x 46”
watercolor on paper, 41” x 30”
Male Shade 1 (Orange), 2012
oil on linen, 64” x 46”
Male Shade 2 (Orange), 2012
oil on linen, 46” x 64”
Press
"Patricia Cronin at fordPROJECT"
ARTnews | March 2013
"Look at This! Patricia Cronin at fordPROJECT"
Gallerist NY | November 29 2012
"Patricia Cronin with Phong Bui (maybe patricia cronin)"
The Brooklyn Rail | November 2012
"Dante's Inferno: The Way of All Flesh"
M/E/A/N/I/N/G | November 2011