Abe Zucca has a voracious appetite for art, devouring the work of, and literature about, artists across styles and time. His own paintings reflect the diversity and progression of his interests, and he can tell you what artist or movement he was captivated by while creating each body of work in his eclectic oeuvre.
For his first solo exhibition at the Marshall Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona, Zucca is channeling his inner Henri Matisse for a series of bold female portraits that are all about color, pattern and impact. The show, titled Crowds Never See Her,runs the entirety of September, with an artist reception on September 17 from 6 to 9 p.m. during Thursday ArtWalk.
The New Aphrodite, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 in.
Zucca’s paintings do not only reveal his influences (among them James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Richard Diebenkorn to provide a sense of the range), but they are a means for him to “speak” to those influences. In the tradition of poets responding to other poets in a poem of their own, for Zucca, a painting is the best way to respond to a painting, or painter, he admires. “There have been so many interesting artists I have been attracted to, and I was always trying to meet them with them a painting of my own,” he says. “I love dialoguing with dead artists, rather than the ones that are still alive, because I can make up what they might be saying back.”
Zucca has been uncompromising when it comes to his art-making and, having built up a following through self-promotion, he has been able to maintain his creative freedom, a point of pride for the artist. “I haven’t been captured into a style yet,” he says. “I love having the freedom to explore art. I have tons of art books and archives sitting around and I’m always thinking about what’s something new I could do, what could I spend the next year creating, and doing more and more of…I’ve come such a long way with painting and I still feel like a student.”
Under the Orange Sun, oil on canvas, 48 x 36 in.
His newest paintings are a way for him to break free from the confines of the portrait commissions he takes on, where the emphasis is on capturing a specific individual’s identity.
“I want to give the viewer the ability to engage in the mystery of a subject and the patterns; I want my paintings to have more of a presence, than a reference to a subject,” Zucca says. “I’ve been doing portraits for so long but when I do a [non-commissioned portrait], it disappoints me when someone asks who it is because it means I didn’t give enough universality to the subject…a great portrait should transcend [the subject] and just have a [strong] presence as a piece of art.”
The Emerald Evening, oil on canvas, 48 x 36 in.
In works like The New Aphrodite and Under the Orange Sun, Zucca is exploring color theory, laying down thick layers of high-chroma paint side by side, and experimenting with how patterns, especially in the clothing and accessories, can enhance a portrait. “Using these intense deep reds and deep blues helps develop more of an eternal ornamentation quality,” he says. “I love how when I look at a Matisse or [Paul] Gauguin they’re still interesting to me after so many years…I want to meet those paintings with this series of portraits. They’re kind of a response to Matisse and what he’s known for, how [his application of color] can create a simplicity of a mood or atmosphere.”
In The Emerald Evening, Zucca took a small step back from realism when he bestowed his model with a stylized, patina-tinted face, almost like a mask. Everything but his subject's visage is invented during the process. “When I was finished I felt like the emerald color of her face, helped the design or composition, more than a true representation of color. A lot of these things are like an unknown language…you just put a color next to another color and it feels really good. You don’t know why it does, but you know you have to go forward with it.” —
The Marshall Gallery 7106 E. Main Street • Scottsdale, AZ 85251 (480) 970-3111 • www.themarshallgallery.com
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