Joe Orffeo (1926-2013)
Retrospective Part I (1940-1980)
Exhibition:
Friday, March 21, 2014-Saturday, April 19, 2014
Joe Orffeo (1926-2013)
Retrospective Part I (1940-1980) includes works created by Orffeo rarely shown, giving us an insight into the formative years of a long and productive life of artistic exploration. In this exhibition we can see the foundations of many series that developed and reappeared throughout a half century of creative expression: Image of Man, Abstractions, Landscapes, Icons and Strange Animals, Four Corners, Death (War and Bones), National Galaxy Clusters and the West Coast Series.
Anthony Bannon, director of the Burchfield Penney Art Center, wrote this appreciation of Joseph Orffeo’s work in 1986. It was one of the first exhibitions Bannon organized at the Center:
“Joe Orffeo goes his own way, pledges no allegiance, steals the fire. With fierce colors, he paints of death. With a great assent to life in the present he worries about the future. Without map or guiding rules, he reiterates the modern discoveries of art, following the pictorial necessities of figure to its dissolution, and he makes his own discoveries.”
We look forward to presenting a second exhibit, Joe Orffeo, Retrospective Part II (1980-2013) March 20 – April 18, 2015, and continuing the journey of discovery with Joe. We remember Joe fondly and thank him for all his special gifts: his art, guiding us to see beauty all around and showing us how to love life and laugh.
(
Bannon's complete 1986 exhbition text can be found at the end of this catalog listing.)
Catalog of Exhibition: Please contact the gallery concerning availability of works from past exhibits.
1.
Rock Shapes I, 1947
12 x 17, watercolor, sul
1200.00
2.
Rock Shapes II, 1947
12 x 17, watercolor, slr
1200.00 (sold)
3.
Landscape with Black Bird, 1947
30 x 24, oil on masonite, slr
1900.00 (sold)
4.
Image of Man I, 1969
16 x 12, watercolor & ink, sul
1000.00
5.
Cityscape, 1949
12 x 16, watercolor, slr
850.00 (sold)
6.
A Nun, 1948
12 x 16, watercolor, slr
850.00
7.
Landscape I, 1948
14 x 20, watercolor, slr
1100.00 (sold)
8.
Steel Worker, 1952
40 x 22, oil on unprimed canvas, slr
2200.00 (sold)
9.
Watertower, 1948
14 x 20, watercolor & ink, sll
1100.00
10.
Smokestacks, 1947
14.5 x 19, watercolor & charcoal, slr
1400.00 (sold)
11.
Aftermath, 1946
19.5 x 14.5, pencil & ink, slr
900.00 (sold)
12.
Abstraction with White, 1954
24 x 48, oil on masonite, slr
2000.00
13.
Landscape II, 1958
15 x 19, watercolor, sul
1100.00
14.
Landscape III, 1958
15 x 19, watercolor & ink, sul
1100.00
15.
Weeds, 1962
12 x 16, watercolor, sul
750.00 (sold)
16.
Image of Man II, 1965
12 x 16, watercolor, slr
800.00 (sold)
17.
Landscape IV, 1969
12 x 16, watercolor, sul
750.00
18.
Abstract I, 1968
15 x 19, watercolor & ink, sul
1100.00
19.
Nude, c.1960’s
2-sided, verso “Parade”
32.5 x 23.5, acrylic, sv
2600.00
20.
Image of Man III, 1969
15 x 19, watercolor, sur
1200.00
21.
Image of Man IV, 1969
15 x 19, watercolor, sur
1200.00
22.
Image of Man V, 1973
16 x 20, acrylic on artist board, sul
1600.00 (sold)
23.
Image of Man VI, 1974
40 x 40, acrylic on canvas, sur
2800.00
24.
Icons, c.1970’s
5 x 35, watercolor & ink, slr
975.00
25.
Icons & Strange Animals, c.1970’s
5 x 35, watercolor & ink, slr
975.00
26.
Image of Man VII, 1974
2-sided, verso Self Portrait, c.1960’s
34 x 25, acrylic, sll
2400.00 (sold)
27.
War, 1973-74
50 x 50, acrylic on canvas, sur
3500.00
28.
Florida Sun, 1972
28 x 22.5, acrylic, sv
1850.00
29.
Nude Study, 1980
23 x 19.5, acrylic, slr
750.00
30.
West Coast I, 1979
18 x 13, acrylic & pencil, slr
600.00
31.
Four Corners I, 1976
30 x 40, acrylic on canvas, sur
2200.00
32.
West Coast II, 1979
18 x 12, watercolor & pencil, sul
700.00 (donation 2014 BPAC gala)
33.
West Coast III, 1979
18 x 12, watercolor & pencil, slr
700.00 (sold)
34.
Four Corners II, 1978
36 x 36, acrylic on canvas, sv
2500.00
35.
Four Corners III, 1978
34 x 36, acrylic on canvas, sv
2400.00
36.
West Coast IV, 1979
20 x 26, acrylic & oil crayon, sul
900.00
37.
Abstract II, 1978
36 x 24, acrylic on canvas, sv
2200.00 (sold)
38.
National Galaxy Clusters I, 1979
30 x 24, acrylic on canvas, sv
2300.00
39.
National Galaxy Clusters II, 1979
24 x 36, acrylic on canvas, sll
2300.00
Front Window Display:
FWL:
National Galaxy Clusters III, 1979
36 x 36, acrylic on canvas, sv
2500.00
FWR:
Four Corners IV, 1979
36 x 50, acrylic on canvas, sur
2600.00
• All Dimensions are in inches, height precedes width.
• All works are signed, dated & titled by the artist or artist’s estate.
• All works on paper unless noted otherwise.
• All works framed with conservation materials.
• sll= signed lower left; and slr= signed lower right; sul= signed upper left; sur= signed upper right; sv= signed verso.
• Additional works by Joe Orffeo are available through Meibohm Fine Arts.
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Anthony Bannon, director of the Burchfield Penney Art Center, wrote this appreciation of Joseph Orffeo’s work in 1986. It was one of the first exhibitions Bannon organized at the Center.
We share because we believe in each other, and this is a testimony of belief in the work of Joseph Orffeo (1926-2013), too long without its due. This writing is to acknowledge those who have shared allowing this exhibition to take place. Though first credit, of course, always must be directed toward the artist, who made the finest effort of all.
With Joe Orffeo, the effort is not only directed toward creating fine art. His many friends speak of other, personal efforts, which for Orffeo seem effortless. To Linda Orffeo a special thank you for all her support. Quite literally without her help this exhibition could not have taken place.
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Art, Orffeo and the FutureJoe Orffeo goes his own way, pledges no allegiance, steals the fire. With fierce colors, he paints of death. With a great assent to life in the present he worries about the future. Without map or guiding rules, he reiterates the modern discoveries of art, following the pictorial necessities of figure to its dissolution, and he makes his own discoveries.
In his own way, Orffeo has prefocused the moment, rediscovering the masters of our century, following their path without knowledge of the way. And this is one of the glories of art, unknown to many who dance on the outskirts of the circle, that there is a necessity to it all that is constantly reinvented and confirmed: A necessity as natural as the wheel or the stars or electricity, those elements of the physical world that are as intellectually appealing in the abstract as the expressions of the word of art: ideas of pure wonderment.
It is better that few have known about the discoveries of Joseph Orffeo. Well off any mainstream, painting for his closet, Orffeo has opened the door only for his wife and family and a few friends. Occasionally he shows work publicly. But only on occasion. Clearly, art here is the priority, not commerce, not glory, nor even the warmth and comfort of social support a larger group offers. That is what makes this art special, and rare. It confirms the beliefs in the shared endowment of art and the unique spirit of humankind. Through this work, made in private, we can confirm that indeed in some ways we are all alike, able to speak to one another in a shared voice, as, too, in some ways each of us is separate, constituted with singular attributes that make life difficult and interesting.
One should be cautioned that there is no romance in all of this. There is nothing rhapsodic in the fact that Joseph Orffeo paints for his closet. Because he must, and that is the way it is. It is the simple and very plain truth. His relationship to his work is defined in terms of private discovery, and he saves every scrap he has made. Luckily it can be communicated.
Clearly, there is a formal discovery that begins with the figures, and that begins Orffeo’s mature work in the late 1960’s and traces the dissolution and recomposition of the figure during the ensuing two decades: This elongated, existential, architectonic Image of Man burst apart in the mid-1970’s, blasted, abstracted, its pieces scattered like bits of a renegade galaxy to the four corners. Though, too there is more than the merely formal – profoundly at the level we once called content.
Throughout Orffeo’s work one finds the presence of death: A Death that stalks in skeletal figures, that appears in the fragments of body and bones, and in eerie groups, the merging graveyards of glooming masses of black. This is a death, however without fear.
“Death is a whole new experience.” Orffeo laughs, and he laughs often. “Death is where all new things will happen. Life is only one segment of what we know. Death will be the great discovery.”
If there is a sadness in his paintings, if one spots despair, it should be between the lines. His Image of Man Series, beginning in late 1968 when the Western Hemisphere was at riot and the East at war, contained hope, he insists, through to the end in 1974.
“Then, later on, I didn’t see any hope. I still don’t see and hope for civilization, going on like it is. The good things in man aren’t strong enough to overcome the bad. We just keep destroying ourselves along with everything else on earth.” Orffeo observes.
“Listen to Mozart or Brubeck. These are the things man can. Then look at the people in control, the people who come into power. These are the destroyers, not the builders. The builders have no power." And he laughs.
Orffeo has little power. He is a barber in Patchin outside Boston who paints, takes dancing lessons, enjoys his family and friends and is nervous about showing his art. These are personal images made public only with a great deal of persuasion.
In these paintings, pink as well as black can mean despair – “Maybe because I am hoping it won’t be bad after all.” This was seen in the first break from the Image of Man. Called In and Out Series, it records, like the discoveries of deep space, extraordinary moments of aesthetic explosion, resulting in an entirely new physics of shape and color for his images. Where at one time only wisps of color described a form of a figure, now it flamboyantly declared a minimal abstract content – a content, in fact, that hardly exists: Man after the cataclysm: Color as a façade for despair. Created, in fact, by systematically painting out areas that might lead the viewer to a recognition of figure, these paintings give as a ground what at one time was the key to understanding the figure.
This push and pull is consistent throughout Orffeo’s work. There are brief cul-de-sacs, short circuits into special images, such as The Scrolls (1974) or Night Pond (1980), or full bodied abstractions, such as the brief Ramus Series from 1982. Otherwise, there lingers behind so much of the work the haunting presence of that The Image of Man – exploded to shards that float in a galactic space in the NGC (National Galaxy and Star Cluster Series of 9179, then reconverging in the Death and Pacific Coast Series of 1981. Most recently, the tension returns, struck between the abstract Death forms and the referential Fallen Figures of 1985.
Orffeo’s figures, alone or in a crowd, whether articulate or abstractly hidden, starkly assert their challenge – spoken both to art as the other conditions we share: “How do you stand? Where? How?” Orffeo’s art challenges a future. Between the lines, it asks, “Do you believe in the future?”
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