John Connell (artist)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John N. Connell (born June 25, 1940 in Atlanta , Georgia , † September 27, 2009 in Mariaville , Maine ) was an American artist. His works include sculpture, painting, drawing, and writing.

Life

Connell attended Brown University in Providence, RI (1958-1960), the Art Students League , NY (1960-1961) and New York University (1962), where he learned the art of Chinese drawing. His first exhibition took place in 1962 in New York.

In the mid-1960s he moved to California, where he worked as a designer for the San Francisco Mime Troupe . In the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, he worked primarily in the southwestern United States, where he made large murals and exhibited in New Mexico's most prestigious art galleries. John Connell was part of the Santa Fe artist group Nerve and gained renown for his large art objects. He is particularly renowned for his drawings. Some of these are made from charcoal and spray paint and can be up to 6 meters high and 9 meters wide.

John Connell used plaster of paris in the 1970s and 1980s and later switched to tar, paper, and wax for the large symbolic sculptures. For his works he also used bronze, cement, wood, wire mesh and for the objects made of paper, occasionally elements from collages. In the early 1980s, he largely abandoned commercial paints and began making his own, which he made from iron oxide and pigments. In later paintings he used ashes, mud and earth. His works also included elements of writing and occasional tape recordings.

Projects

Some of his best known projects included:

  • "The Construction of Kuan-Yin Lake" (1982–1989): a multimedia project that included sculpture, painting and sound.
  • "The Raft Project" (1989–1994): a gigantic sculpture / painting project with the painter Eugene Newmann. It was commonly perceived as a replica of Géricault's The Raft of Medusa .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Art in America, October 1979
  2. ↑ Albuquerque Journal, July 30, 1978
  3. ↑ Artlives, 1984
  4. ^ Tierra Encantada, 1990, Kansas City Art Institute
  5. ↑ Revered Earth, 1990, Center for Contemporary Arts of Santa Fe
  6. ↑ Santa Fe Reporter, March 8, 1989
  7. ^ ARTnews, Summer 1993
personal data
SURNAME Connell, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Connell, John N.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American artist
DATE OF BIRTH June 25, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Atlanta , Georgia
DATE OF DEATH September 27, 2009
Place of death Mariaville , Maine