John Dubrow World Trade Center: View of Manhattan, 1997, oil on canvas, 90″ x 96″
I remember seeing a show of John Dubrow’s work in the early 90’s that turned my brain inside out in how a painting can be about the paint as much as its subject. His large masses of color applied impasto with a knife and large brushes in a sophisticated and sensual surface texture render you speechless with delight.
The color perfectly captures the light and form of his subject without fussy modeling and detail – he goes for the essence and gets it.
Some excellent reviews of his work include the article “Two Masters of Color” by John Goodrich that you can read on John Dubrow’s website and Maureen Mullarkey’s “John Dubrow’s Handsome Urban Motifs”
John Dubrow Self-Portrait, 2007, Oil on linen, 48″ x 40″
Painting Perceptions was started in 2009 by Larry Groff to promote the ideas, practice and experience of painters working from observation in a modernist vein from around the world through interviews, essays, videos and community. It later evolved to include imagination-based and abstract painting as well.
This guy’s work is awesome and I’d probably never have found it without this site. Thanks, Larry, for doing such a great job of putting out so much useful information and so many amazing images by amazing people.
Thanks Richard, I’m happy this blog helped to introduce his work to you. I’d like to do another article about his work in the future, perhaps an interview if I can swing it.
There is an exhibition of Dubrow’s work at Lori Bookstein (http://www.loribooksteinfineart.com/) in NYC from Mar 21 2013 -April 20, 2013, and a retrospective at the Demuth Museum (http://www.demuth.org/) in PA until May 19, 2013. I think at least one of his World Trade Center paintings is in the exhibition.
I also stumbled across a 2012 interview by David Yezzi in the New Criterion (http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/An-interview-with-John-Dubrow-7503).