Humor Arts Museum
Uplifting Humorous Art In All Media
Current
Recent
Art of the Ring:
CIRCUScenes
May 1 - June 30, 2023
Curated by
Karen E. Gersch
Art of the Ring: CIRCUScenes
May 1 - June 30, 2023 | Curator Karen E. Gersch
Virtual Reception: Sunday, May 7, 4-5pm ET at HAMzoom.com
Welcome to my favorite place - the magic that unfurls within a circus ring! It’s no secret that circus has served to inspire, enthrall and intrigue artists around the world. Since the start of time - as far back as 4,000 years ago - acrobats, jugglers and tumblers have been depicted carved in stone, shaped in clay and painted in frescos and well-preserved scrolls. The lure is easy to explain. Dynamics of color and composition, life-risking physical feats, mesmerizing movement, the raucous play of clowns and wizardry of objects and people flung, spun, rotated, tossed and deftly caught again. For this exhibit, I have selected a fine palette of artists: classic and legendary ones, as well as contemporary painters, sculptors, photographers and printmakers. The styles and mediums, the focus on specified acts and apparatus differ; but they all share the excitement, high energy, gleeful radiance and an appreciation for the beauty of agile bodies in the air. Step right up and let your spirits lift: the round world welcomes you!
Curator Karen E. Gersch
Photo by Jim Moore
VIRTUAL RECEPTION for Art of the Ring CIRCUScenes - May 7, 2023
Featured Artists
MIA WOLFF
PAUL GUTHEIL
PHILOMENA MARANO
PABLO ROIG
ELI ROSS
JOSIAH H. DEARBORN
KAREN E. GERSCH
DAME LAURA KNIGHT
FERNANDO BOTERO
PAUL KLEE
CELSO LAGAR
HENRI ACHILLE ZO
JEF RABILLON & PAT BELLAND
PHILOMENA MARANO
High Flyer | 2021
Hand cut paper | 25.5 x 19.25" framed | $1700 Print unframed | $400 | Buy
Marano illustrates the exultation of release - flying above a clouded sky, tethered only by one’s ankles - with her intricately cut paper painting, reminiscent of Henri Matisse.
JEF RABILLON | PAT BELLAND (clown)
Les Enfants
Black/white photograph | 8 x 10" unframed | $75 | Buy
Children are the greatest judges of what is funny and meaningful. Rabillon has been accompanying silent clown Pat Belland to foreign countries since 2015, with their shared photo-documentary project called “KlownKonzept”. Together they roam the globe, Belland engaging all he meets, from infants to elders; Rabillon chronicling the comic chaos of his improvisations in riveting black and white images.
PABLO ROIG
Cirque | 1911
Limited edition color lithograph | 19 x 14" | NFS
Collection of Karen Gersch
Greatly influenced by Toulouse Lautrec and Degas, ROIG
added his own delicate touch to the paintings and lithographs he created. As an acrobat, I appreciate the well-aligned and perfectly balanced head-to- head trick he depicts here. The loose arms and straddled legs indicates his knowledge of form and acrobatic prowess.
MIA WOLFF
Circus Trunk | 1991
Oil on linen | 40 x 60" | $7,000 | Buy
With a dramatic, vivid palette, Wolff has created a stunning
portrait of her own steamer trunk with many-hued costumes spilling forth, from her travels as a catcher in a trapeze act. All of the sequined, rhinestoned outfits were designed and sewn by her partner Donna Orosz.
KAREN E. GERSCH
Chair Balancer | 2001
Ink on paper | 9 x 12" | $400 | Buy
For 26 years, I attended the Circus Festival in Paris (Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain), sketching live every act that graced the ring. Hand balancers who held their poses were my favorite, as it gave me seconds more to capture them in seemingly single strokes with my pen.
PAUL GUTHEIL
Gordoon
Color photograph | 8 x 10" unframed | $50 | Buy
If there is a single clown who captured the hearts of Big Apple Circus audiences, as well as Gutheil’s discerning eye, it is Jeff Gordon,
a.k.a. Gordoon. For more than a decade, his antics and ingenious physical comedy delighted everyone under the little top.
JOSIAH H. DEARBORN
Hoop Acrobat | 2018
Silver and brass earring | 2.5" diameter | NFS
Collection of Jessica Hentoff
Dearborn - a celebrated silversmith - usually designs rings, bracelets and creatures inspired by nature and geometrics. The theme of circus was a new venture: exploring how to make jewelry depicting performers. His first pieces were jugglers; a small hand holding a ball, then two hands with an arc of balls that were illuminated by touch.
Hoop Acrobat worn on model's ear
PHILOMENA MARANO
Globe of Thunder | 2020
Limited Edition Print | 21.5 x 26.5" | $500 | Buy
One of the more dangerous and certainly the loudest
of contemporary circus acts involve racing motorcycles within a giant steel mesh globe. The riders cycle simultaneously, turning 360 degrees as they circumvent. Marano has intensified the act with her dramatic choice of colors and well designed perception of depth.
MIA WOLFF
Visitation | 2008
Oil on linen | 14 x 40" | NFS
Wolff’s art reflects not only on circus imagery, but her studies and involvement with the spiritual world. She taught Pilates, as well as aerial work for many years, and is now a practitioner of Yoga. The great Guru, Meher Baba, has appeared in both her writing and her paintings.
ELI ROSS
Balancing Elephants
Cast resin | 5.5 x 5.5" | NFS
Ross perfectly captures the two main tricks that
circus elephants learn - remarkable feats of equilibrium given the weight and bulk of their bodies.
KAREN E. GERSCH
Backlot, Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Circus
Mixed media on cold press | 13 x 19" framed | $945 | Buy
This was painted from a grainy black and white photo I took with
a cheap Instamatic camera - all I had back then in 1969 - when Clyde Beatty came to Rockland County. I am still enamored of grass root shows that set up in fields and local meadows... sadly, fewer and fewer these days.
PHILOMENA MARANO
Circus Peanuts | 2023
Ebony pencil, watercolor | 8 x 10" | $225 | Buy
Who doesn’t crave or associate popcorn, cotton candy, hot dogs and peanuts with visiting circus?! Marano makes a charming portrait of a small familiar bag, to tug at our appetites.
PAUL GUTHEIL
Red Fedoras
Color photograph | 8 x 10" unframed | $50 | Buy
Llamas, affectionate and smart, make good partners for comedy. This amusing duo need do anything more than pose in matching hats to delight a pre-show audience. Gutheil has a knack for finding great comic moments backlot, as well as in the ring.
JEF RABILLON | PAT BELLAND (clown)
Voila!
Black/white photo | 8 x 10" unframed | $75 | Buy
The exuberant focus of this French passerby as he interacts with Pat Belland's charismatic clown, is evident and joyous. Belland has a history of working in circus, but chooses to exercise his buffoon on streets in foreign countries now. Commissioned by festivals in Asia and Europe, he sets out with only his worn suitcase and Rabillon in tow.
DAME LAURA KNIGHT
Comedy Riders
Oil on canvas. | 25 x 29.9" | NFS
One can only imagine the physical humor of these performers on horseback; the top hatted balancer about to launch into a move from his sideways position on the horse’s rump. As always, Dame Laura Knight creates the perfect mood and lighting in this painted scene.
JOSIAH H. DEARBORN
Tiger
Silver and brass earring | 3" diameter | NFS
Private collection
Dearborn used the Hoop as a catalyst for his circus jewelry designs; first an acrobat on German Wheel and here, a tiger leaping through the hoop.
FERNANDO BOTERO
Flying Trapeze
Circus People | NFS
Classic Botero: the psychological intrigue and inclusion of various circus artists that enliven his compositions. Rich hues of bold colors, with a prominance of reds and golds. The delicacy of his shading and shadows, the small dramas enacted between individuals; gazes averted and carefully poised.
KAREN E. GERSCH
Annie | 2021
Graphite, acrylic and ink on Ingres paper| 9 x 12" | $500 | Buy
I first saw Annie Fratellini in Paris, performing with her students and the faculty of her French Circus School. The show made me weep, being so beautifully choreographed and emotive. Annie reminds me of Fellini’s wife who played Gelsomina in “La Strada”: an elfin or urchin-like quality both women share.
PAUL KLEE
Traveling Circus | 1937
Oil on canvas | NFS
Collection of Baltimore Museum of Art
Abstract and kooky, but its minimally-placed figures are definitely circus characters, let alone the wonderful textural background and use of color. One might imagine all the tiny circles that compose the background as audience members watching the show.
JEFF RABILLON | PAT BELLAND (clown)
At the Salon
Black/white photograph | 8 x 10" unframed | $75 | Buy
Rabillon catches the exact moment in each of his photos that makes us laugh at the situation. Pat has assumed the role of haircutter; his customer fully amused and enjoying the surprise.
PHILOMENA MARANO
Umbrella Leap | 2022
Mixed media | 17 x 5.5" | $900 | Buy
I will confess - this is not a trick I have ever seen performed! I don’t doubt Marano’s depiction - it a remarkable feat and I am quite impressed, both by her signature color sense and simple shapes that so well create the mood and tension.
KAREN E. GERSCH
Rhum | 1983
Casein on cold press | 27 x 17" framed | $950 | Buy
In the early 80’s, while in France, I borrowed a friend’s ancient and rare edition of sepia photographs of famous clowns. The book and images were so fragile, I was nervous handling them. But I managed a dozen sketches of the legends and back in NY, painted them.
PAUL GUTHEIL
On a Roll!
Color photograph | 8 x 10" unframed | $50 | Buy
Gutheil always manages to snag the perfect time to snap a shot with a bulls-eye moment! Gordoon here in his famous toilet paper routine, which invariably left audiences of all ages howling.
FERNANDO BOTERO
Circus Act | 1970's
Oil on canvas |NFS
A rare subtle sketch from Botero, that has an intimacy and quietude not often found in his signature boisterous, active paintings. Despite their exaggerated size, Botero's figures always possess grace and strength. There is a practiced rapport between these two aerialists about to ascend the corde; their hands entwined on the rope, their focus on each other.
DAME LAURA KNIGHT
Musicians | 1930
Oil on canvas | NFS
Original; Private collection
As she often painted performers backlot, as well as in the ring or waiting to go on, Dame Laura Knight likely caught this duo warming up or practicing. There is a dreamy or romantic quality to this painting.
PAUL GUTHEIL
Sultana | 1951
Sepia photograph | NFS
I included this photo by Gutheil because it’s a beautiful portrait of this elephant (yes, in a zoo, not a circus) but later he would go on to shoot only circus elephants. This was his very first photo of one, taken when he was just 8 years old.
DAME LAURA KNIGHT
Circus Matinee | 1938