Lot 150
Michael Madzo (American, 1950-2023). "The Promise" acrylic paint, paper, and cotton thread, 1994. Signed and dated in pencil at lower right. Michael Madzo's "The Promise" presents a delightfully surreal composition featuring a central reclining woman dressed in red, surrounded by a surprising ensemble of intriguing objects that conjure Old Master paintings and antiquities such as a bust of a woman, a tall ceramic urn, sandaled feet, an apple perched upon a pedestal, a stone wall with a colonnade above and an archway below, and a pastoral landscape in the distance with billowing clouds in the skies above. Madzo's innovative technique involves arranging cutout sections of preprinted materials, using acrylic paint to over-paint and secure the pieces in place, coating the composition with a UV protective clear glaze, and then stitching the pieces together with colored threads using a sewing machine. Madzo's "painting" is a wonderful fusion of collage, painting, and textile techniques that create a mesmerizing layered, textural effect. All is mounted behind glass in an attractive custom gilt frame. Size (image): 16" L x 39" W (40.6 cm x 99.1 cm) Size (frame): 33" L x 55" W (83.8 cm x 139.7 cm)
Please note: Gilt frame has been tested via x-ray florescence and contains 22.8% gold.
Michael Madzo is represented by several galleries including Leiper's Creek Gallery in Lepier's Fork, Tennessee who has this to say about Madzo's works, "Many of Madzo's images depict personae and creatures that are at once fanciful, grotesque, and heroic, and, at the same time, communicate a compassion and empathy that results in a haunting impression. One of the most striking details of Madzo's work is a specific type of eye. We see and experience with our physical eye, and then there is a spiritual eye. In Madzo's work it is the spiritual eye. Madzo states, 'This is an eye that is always looking back. I see the figures in my paintings as someone at the end of a fantastic journey.' / Mazdo's figures speak chapters to anyone willing to spend time contemplating them. And where does Madzo go within himself and what are his thoughts when he encounters the body of his work, the living work, surrounding him in his studio? 'It's the mystery', says Madzo, 'It's looking for liquid moments in this otherwise solid and stiff world. It's a function of the artist. We learn how to go to the formless plain. I put the invisible and the indescribable into a form. It is a translation device a facilitator. It is a collecting of moments.'"
Artist Statement: "The paintings are made with various pieces of paper materials, all beginning with a single form or color. The painted image evolves steadily, piece by piece, taking on its form and direction by the addition of each individual piece of paper or paint. I work on many paintings simultaneously both small and large and often find portions of a painting migrating to another work in progress. As the pieces of paper are laid down, acrylic paint is used to over-paint and cement the pieces in place. Varnish is laid on top of the paint and then the colored threads are sewn throughout the work with a sewing machine. All paintings are original. I have been working in this manner for 24 years, showing primarily in Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Santa Fe and Mexico."
Provenance: Private Los Angeles, California, USA collection
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#186162
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Condition:
- Signed and dated in pencil at lower right. Mounted in a custom gilt frame under glass. Chips/losses to frame as shown. Artwork has not been examined outside the frame but appears to be in good, age appropriate condition. Minor crease marks visible to margins. Gilt frame has been tested via x-ray florescence and contains 22.8% gold.
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