Esca-Let’s Get Scary!
October 26, 2015
We here at the Escalette Permanent Collection of Art are proud to house a wide variety of art pieces. These artistic works are diverse in time period, style, color, medium, and subjects. Below, we have decided to feature some of the pieces in our collection to celebrate the Halloween season! Be they intentionally or unintentionally eerie, dark, satirical, or evoking the emotional responses of curiosity and fright, it’s certainly no trick! This artwork is a treat for all to behold!
GHOSTLY LINES
First in our eerie lineup is an untitled piece by artist Eric Freeman. Freeman has exhibited his work all over the world and has amazed his audiences with his use of color and unique styles. Freeman works primarily with oil on canvas, employing a technique in which he gradually thins out the paint he applies using various brushstrokes at differing speeds. Said painter David Salle of Freeman’s art:
“Where does the energy in these pictures come from? What does Freeman want us to feel? A sense of giving over to it; the thrill of the roller coaster gives way to something more internal. Accept the sheer physical/optical fact, these paintings seem to say, because that’s what painting is.”
Eric Freeman,
Untitled (Large painting with Yellow and Light Yellow)
, 2001, Oil on Canvas, 108×108″
This piece has been recently relocated from Beckman Hall to the walls of University Advancement, but we invite you to stop by and observe it’s iridescent qualities yourself! What do you see in Freeman’s harsh brushstrokes? Ghosts? Skeletons? An electrical storm? Or could it be something darker…?
COLORFUL BRAINS
Peter Kogler is an Austrian artist who receives his artistic inspiration primarily from science and technology, uniting two very different schools of thought in a single form of expression. Specifically in his pieces Brain CA (Green) and Brain CA (Pink), one can see how Kogler’s fascination with the texture, shape, and depth of a human brain was translated into two hypnotic depictions. The fact that Kogler decided to paint these two pieces nearly identically with the exception of color furthermore gives each piece a mind of its own (no pun intended)! Students at Chapman’s Harry and Diane Rinker Health Science Campus had better beware: to a meandering zombie, these large canvases might appear quite delectable!
Peter Kogler,
Brain CA (Green)
, Gift of American International Group, 1989, 48×48″
Peter Kogler,
Brain CA (Pink)
, Gift of American International Group, 1989, 48×48″
DUELING SKULLS
Ruby Osorio studied art at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico after receiving a degree in Sociology at UCLA. Afterwards, she was awarded a residency in Japan and studied art abroad there in 2005. In her piece Dual Nature, which is currently on display in Beckman Hall, it is clear to see that she was heavily inspired by Japanese watercolor. Osorio is heavily influenced by geography, and by international artwork or simply inspiration found in her hometown of Los Angeles. In the video below, Osorio discusses what artistic inspirations the city of Los Angeles has to offer any aspiring artist:
The majority of Osorio’s work revolves around the idea of playing with “feminine aesthetic.” Dual Nature depicts the profile of a woman, but much more prominently features a skull facing the viewer, juxtaposing beauty with darkness. The duality of this piece is both beautiful and terrifying; a modern “Jekyll and Hyde,” if you will.
Ruby Osorio,
Dual Nature
, Gift of Meg Linton, 2008, 15×11″ (framed
COFFIN CRITIQUE
Jeff Russell’s tongue-in-cheek and delightfully macabre depiction of a two-tiered coffin comes alive in his piece, Plan for My Coffin with Extra One Tied Underneath to Contain Art Critic. Russell is known in art circles by simply his first name, Jeff, and one can get a greater sense of his work on his website, www.jeffart.com. Russell enjoys playing with depicting “confinement,” in drawing and painting various cages and coffins, which is particularly fascinating because art is considered such a non-confining form of expression. Regardless, we at Escalette will refrain from providing any sort of criticism of our Russell piece, lest we become the inhabitants of his clever coffin design!
Jeff Russell,
Plan for My Coffin with Extra One Tied Underneath to Contain Art Critic,
1981, Drypoint on white wove paper, 450 x 595 mm (plate); 553 x 753 mm (sheet)
Be it sinister specters, the terrifying undead, a bone-chilling skeleton or a macabre coffin, we hope that our Halloween art tour has given you thrills and chills! From our haunts to yours, the Escalette Collection would like to wish you a very happy Halloween!
