Existing comment:
Gregory Gillespie, 1936-2000
Self-portraiture played a critical role in Gregory Gillespie's career, enabling him to carry on an internal dialogue about the hopes, fears, and contradictions that shaped his outlook and his art. Gillespie's expression radiates satisfaction, and the light that filters through this image intensifies the sense of his spiritual fulfillment. The challenge of maintaining such harmony is conveyed by the work's very materiality: the heavily worked graphite is inherently fragile, perpetually threatening to disturb the artist's crisp marks. Such tension has metaphorical significance. As the artist explained, "My job is to turn the chaos and pain into art."
1983-84 |