Estate of Jack Beal
During September, the George Adams Gallery will exhibit recent work by Jack Beal, including a series of studies in oils and pastels for a mosaic tile mural commissioned by Metropolitan Transportation Authority Arts for Transit. The exhibition will coincide with the installation and dedication of the mural located in the Southeast Side Expanded 41 Street IRT Mezzanine at 7th Avenue.
In 1986, Jack Beal was awarded a commission to create a large-scale mural for the MTA as part of the redevelopment of 42nd Street. Beal proposed a glass mosaic mural depicting characters from Greek mythology set in modern times. The completed mosaic, titled The Return of Spring, measures 7 x 20 feet and consists of over one million pieces of glass. The mosaic was executed in Italy at the Travisanutto Workshop in Spilimbergo, Italy in collaboration with Miotto Mosaics, Inc. of New York.
The theme of The Return of Spring is Persephone returning from the underground. The setting is a contemporary view of Times Square showing a crowded sidewalk and a construction crew working by a subway entrance. Among the pedestrians is Persephone, as a girl emerging from the entrance carrying a bouquet of lilies (the model is the printmaker Joe Wilfer's daughter, Anne - Joe appears as one of the workmen). Others in the crowd include architect Malcolm Holzman as Dante, and the artist Sondra Freckelton (the artist's wife) as Flora, goddess of flowers. The artist himself appears as Poseidon, god of earthquakes, in the guise of a workman wielding a jackhammer ("Jack" hammer).
The gallery exhibition will include several studies for the mural, including a 3 x 10 foot oil study and several pastel drawings of the principal figures in the composition. There will also be several recent paintings and pastel drawings completed over the past four years, including three new still-life paintings.
Beal, along with Philip Pearlstein, was recently the focus of "Abstract Expressionism and the New American Realism", a travelling exhibition organized by the Columbus Museum in Georgia that examined their emergence as realists from out of the Abstract-Expressionist milieu.
Exhibition Checklist
1. Still-life with Fish, 1999
oil on canvas
24 x 30 inches
JBp 37
2. Cyclamen and Pitcher, 2001
oil on canvas
18 x 24 inches
JBp 42
3. Daffodils with Corot's "Nami, " 2001
oil on canvas
48 x 36 inches
JBp 43
4. Still-life with Cat, 1999
oil on canvas
24 x 30 inches
JBp 36
5. The Return of Spring, 1997
(Study for the Times Square Subway Mosaic)
oil on canvas
53 3/4 x 129 inches
JBp 41
6. Hutton's Greak Oak, 1971
pastel on paper
21 1/2 x 47 inches
JBd 65
7. Spring, 1989
pastel on paper
32 x 40 inches
JBd 27
8. Dale Hutton Triptych, 1972
pastel on paper
30 x 66 inches
JBd 63
9. Joy Hutton Triptych, 1972
pastel on paper
30 x 66 inches
JBd 64
10. Charles Demill's Rose, 1988
oil on canvas
12 x 16 inches
JBp 14
11. Still-life with Flowers, 1978
pastel on paper
31 3/4 x 19 3/4 inches
JBd 41