Staging the Nude: Daniel Barkley, Painter 

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Staging the Nude

Daniel Barkley, Lost Fishermen II, 2002, acrylic on canvas, 213x183 cm

Daniel Barkley is a young, Quebec-born artist who holds a Fine Arts Master’s degree from Concordia University.  Recipient of several prizes for painting. Exhibited in solo and juried group shows in galleries and museums of Quebec, Ontario, Newfoundland, New York and Mexico, since 1980.

Daniel Barkley’s powerful, mythical paintings are reminiscent of classical sculptures and paintings by old masters such as Michelangelo, and the famous 20^th century painter Lucian Freud.  Barkley’s paintings, which involve male and female nudity, highlighted with tattoo-like symbols, the figures are naked, partly clothed or draped.  The titles are derived from mythology, yet the paintings relate to modern experiences.  Barkley’s The Harrowing of Hell (1998, acrylic on canvas, 210 x 214 cm); and the paintings Ship of Fools I (1996, acrylic on canvas, 160 x 292cm) and Ship of Fools II (1996, acrylic on canvas, 211 x 190cm), make one think of the painting The Raft of the “Medusa” by the French Neo-Baroque painter Théodore Géricault (1819, Oil on canvas, 491 x 716 cm, The Louvre Museum, Paris.)  Barkley’s art is seemingly classic style, at the same time modern.  I wonder…Is the art world pendulum swinging from the abstract (or even minimal painting) back to realistic, figurative painting?

Opening: September 12^th at a Vernissage at 2 p.m. The exhibit continues until October 17^th.  The show is curated by Christian Bédard http://www.galeriecb.com. 

Musée d’art contemporain des Laurentides, 185, rue du Palais, St Jérôme, http://www.museelaurentides.ca  450-432-7171.

ARTS Etc. Main Street October, 2004.

Laurentian Museum of contemporary Art:

Daniel Barkley Vernissage: Michel Larose, member - Museum Board of Directors; Daniel Barkley (center) holding his grandmother; Karl-Gilbert Murray, art historian and Museum’s Board member; Christian Bédard, who curated the exhibit; and Andrée Matte, curator of the museum, at the Vernissage, Sept. 12. 

Until Oct.17:  Daniel Barkley: Staging the Nude.   At a Vernissage Sept. 13, Daniel Barkley shared what inspires him, and responded to numerous questions.  He also spent a day at the museum for live-model drawing with artists and art students; accompanied by musicians installed with a boat, a constant in his paintings.  185 rue du Palais, St. Jerome.  Tue.-Fri.: Noon - 5 p.m. Sat.: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., Sun.: Noon – 5 p.m.  www.museelaurentides.ca  450-432-7171. 

 
Colours and dimensions artwork may be slightly different from the original.