6/26/2007

George Boorujy

30 comments:

Painter said...

George Boorujy @
Snug Harbor Cultural Center
Staten Island, NY

Hungry Hyaena said...

Boorujy's work is impressive. This Lincoln painting is great - and timely given the recent resurgence of interest in the man and the myth - but Boorujy's landscapes and natural history works are every bit as strong.

None said...
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youth--less said...

People been doing Lincoln for a while. Emo Lincol.. Gay Lincoln. Geoff Chadsy did a sexy Lincoln a while back but I cant find it online. How bout his Ben Franklin?

if threadless got it, it's played

Martin said...

i'm almost positive i saw this in a show somewhere. not the one listed above. where?

lincoln must be the #1 most portrayed president in contemporary art, maybe followed by nixon.. there are so many.

a few months ago i saw a show in albany called mr. president, a group show of contemporary work depicting presidents. it stuck me that in show of thirty-two artists there were only three women, and i realized that i could think of many other artists who could have been included, but almost no women. it made me wonder if maybe women artists are not as interested in portraying Presidents? Is it a guy thing?

an artist named Andrew Lenaghan had a really good Bush painting.

None said...
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Barnaby said...

yes birds and yes this has been shown before...

I made it to the opening on Staten Island.. was wonderful to see all of his best work displayed like that (really great building at Snug Harbor)

CAP said...

Cookie predicted Painter would post Nozkowski and DeKeyser.
Spending too much time at Zwirner, maybe.

anthony said...

Whose Lincoln is represented here? Gore Vidal's? Ken Burns'? US History textbook 1960 or 1986?

Lincoln has been conjured by many politicians who wish to be perceived as having infallible moral compasses.

anthony said...

...And so his stature/status increases.

surfkook said...

I like Barnaby Furnas' lincoln better!

Worth more too...

anthony said...

Were his hands in his pockets?

None said...
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poppy said...

reminds me of Tommy Boy - "fat guy in a little coat, fat guy in a little coat" then he rips the coat.

surfkook said...

Like Gandalf the Wizard.
or part ape-man

None said...
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Steppen Wolf said...

I was just up at Snug Harbor. Georges' paintings are superb and have to be seen to be believed. He has a remarkable ability to blend in the ink on paper so well that some of the paintings seem to spring to life in the gallery. The little bugs that you see buzzing around Abe's profile are really eagles. I am not too sure the reason for putting them there, but overall it is a remarkable portrait.
The best in the show (in my view) was the painting 'Brandt's Cormorant' - visually stunning use of color blending. Overall, I enjoyed the show very much.
If you are going, do not forget to check out another exhibition in an adjacent gallery 'Elise Kaufman - Selected Drawings'. Worth a good look.

zipthwung said...

I think the eagles have something to do with the American Eagle clothing line.

nc wyeth

call of cthulhu

goya

goya

dali

makes ya wonder what high art is don't it?

Unknown said...

I like this painting alright but it instantly mde me think of a painting by Sean Ward, he had a show at Rare recently, painting and ceramic heads, this painting is from years back, in Kansas City, represent

Unknown said...

Heres the info a little late

www.charlottestreet.org/archive/images/2005/ward.jpg

Barnaby said...

This was painted in 2004. So is the Sean Ward more successful to you because the piece got to you first?

youth--less said...

Go hipsters!

Unknown said...

I have to admit I haven't gotten to this painting of Lincoln yet... but the Sean Ward is more successful to me because I have a hard time figuring out whether its a decompsing Geronimo or Christopher Reeve. And thats a different thought-and in my mind a better one then Lincoln sans shirt and eagles swarming, and as previously mentioned tons of Lincoln Hype...
this is my favorite Lincoln painting, I can't link it, check out jamieboling.com, it's under the section large works... kill lincoln

Barnaby said...
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Barnaby said...
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CAP said...

After many hours of contemplation I find the shading on Abe’s cheekbone too much.
It could be GB is quietly toying with the exaggerated tonalities of 19th century orthochromatic photography, but something tells me he’s not one for technicalities – like the flock of ‘eagles’ in the distance. Eagles don’t work in groups.
Vultures do, though.
The show was called Civilisation Was Purchased by The Betrayal of Nature – a contentious thesis and not one immediately connected with Abe, but I guess even lawyers have their outdoors side.
(is an appeal to precedent an appeal to nature?)
I liked the www.charlottestreet.org/archive/images/2005/ward.jpg comparison. It occurred to me as well that tying the portrait too closely to Abe robbed it of wider reference. I was imagining one of those Nancy Burson morphs that start with Abe and seg to one of the rulers from Planet of The Apes. There’s that teasing midpoint where you’re not sure whether it really is Abe or Ape.
But obviously that’s not GB’s thing.

zipthwung said...

You know the eighties weren't all gay - there was some other stuff going on.

A cockroach in the concrete, courthouse tan and beady eyes
A slouch with fallen arches, purging truths into great lies
A little man with a big eraser, changing history
Procedures that he's programmed to, all he hears and sees
Altering the facts and figures, events and every issue
Make a person disappear, and no one will ever miss you

Rewrites every story, every poem that ever was
Eliminates incompetence, and those who break the laws
Follow the instructions of the New Way's Evil Book of Rules
Replacing rights with wrongs, the files and records in the schools

You said you've got the answers, well who asked you anyway ?
Ever think may be it was meant to be this way ?
Don't try to fool us, we know the worst is yet to come
I believe my kingdom will come

[CHORUS:]
F, is for fighting, R is for red
Ancestors' blood in battles they've shed
E, we elect them, E, we eject them
In the land of the free and the home of the brave
D, for your dying, O, your overture
M, will cover your grave with manure
This spells out FREEDOM, it means nothing to me
As long as there's P.M.R.C

F, is for fighting, R is for red
Ancestors' blood in battles they've shed
E, we elect them, E, we eject them
In the land of the free and the home of the brave
D, for your dying, O, your overture
M, is for money, you know what that cures
This spells out FREEDOM, it means nothing to me
As long as there's P.M.R.C

[CHORUS:]

Put your hand right up my shirt
Pull the strings that make me work
Jaws will part, words fall out
Like a fish with hook in mouth

Rewrites every story, every poem that ever was
Eliminates incompetence, and those who break the laws
Follow the instructions of the New Way's Evil Book of Rules
Replacing rights with wrongs, the files and records in the schools

I'm not a fish
I'm a man
Hook in mouth

None said...
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zipthwung said...

OMG SPAM!!!!!

Kill it!!! kill it now!!!!!

Lincoln may have had Marphan's syndrome.

which, come to think of it, might be about the vision thing.

Todd Camplin said...

I got to see an artist that is obsessed with Abe's image. This is a great piece.