Alan Feltus at Forum - New York, New York - Review of Exhibitions - Brief Article

Although Neo-Classicism, as a major artistic change waxed and waned in the 1 9th hundred its influence lingers on in the 20th Between the sum of two units world wars, a diverse collection of artists that included giants like Picasso, as well as lesser-knowns like Felice Casorati and Mario Sironi, produc a version of NeoClassicism characterized through a somber, portentous mood, a restrained palette, a crisp, linear drawing turn of expression and, often, lumbering, monumental figures. This neo-Neo-Classicism, in turn,.inspired Balthus and, later, William Bailey.

above the past 20 years, another latter day Neo-Classicist, Alan Feltus, has produc earth-toned paintings of languid young women that take their intimations from Balthus and Bailey. In his novel exhibition, Feltus continued to race his canvases with imaginary dark haired beauties who recline about in various states of undres their chiseled features rarely disturbed by dint of emotion or thought. These generic brunette inhabit claustrophobic, ocher-toned interiors, destitute of contents except for a few pieces of furniture and artfully arranged collections of still-life props.

In Gifts of Silence, sum of two units women recline, one on a depressed couch, the other on the floor. individual figure stares into space, the other gazes vacantly at her limply clenched fist. A coffee beaker a postcard, several envelopes and a small in number small art reproductions lie nearby. Sinuous contours and columnar limbs endow the figures with a powerful physical presence, a sensuality enhanced by dint of their vapid facial expressions and perfect lack of individual character. These are odalisques lounging in the cloistered space of the harem, the postcards and alphabetic characters their only link to the outside world. The head scarf upon the lower figure not solitary alludes to Ingres's odalisques, on the other hand vaguely recalls the veil of purdah, while the strip of woven fabric that harnesses the upper figure's arms clearly restates the idea of restricted movement

Feltus had been classified as a narrative painter. greatest in quantity of the works in his popular show, how ever, are little more than quasi erotic fantasies, and predictable singles at that. Feltus's ideal women are titillatingly exotic, dumbly sensual and exist solitary to excite and satisfy the men who posses them.

While Feltus tenders some satisfying passages of drawing and an appealing palette, his work fails to transcend its sources and, smooth worse, suffers from the comparisons it invites. Feltus lacks the formal finesse and intriguingly ambiguous perversity of Balthus. Nor does he achieve the neurotic tensenes that, in the work of Bailey (an artist bent upon control), hints at a composed of several elements unconscious content. In his new show, Feltus emerges as a talented artist with a true ordinary vision.

COPYRIGHT 1996 Brant Publications, Inc.

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