Art Exhibit Focuses On The Model

The notion of the artist’s muse, and one artist’s practice in elevating the relationship between artist and model, is explored in a retrospective exhibit that is soon to close following a month-long run at Artspace on Orange and Crown.

The exhibit, Larry Morelli: The Third Person, which opened on May 14 and closes on June 17, includes portrait paintings, drawings, and Polaroids produced by New Haven artist Lawrence Morelli, primarily from 1994 to the present. Three separate video displays offer insightful commentary from Morelli and two of his models, Megan (2008 – 13) and Anneke (2016-present), as they explore facets of their professional working relationships and the studio experience. A third model, Jennifer, was not recorded for this exhibit.

Curated by gallery director and curator Sarah Fritchey, the exhibit offers a rare glimpse into the evolving relationship of the male artist and female model as collaborators in the art making process, rather than the historical paradigm that has tended to turn the model into a passive object. 

“The role of the female model who Larry is painting is foregrounded as the reason for the show,” Fritchey said. ​“I think that you can do a sort of exhibition about Larry’s work that is just about portraiture, and that’s fine, but I think each show should have an argument, and the argument that’s made here is that Larry spent a lot of time thinking about who he is going to work with when he paints a model.”

According to Fritchey, Morelli has worked primarily with Jennifer, Megan, and Anneke as models since 1995, developing long-term work relationships with each of them in succession. The studio experience during painting sessions is built on focused intention during sittings that transcend the act of simple posing. The models ​“must be present in their body and clear in their mind,” said Fritchey.

In two video monitors anchored close to their respective portraits, the models describe how they are attuned to Morelli’s processes and describe the sessions as multisensory experiences; they are able to read multiple cues, such as the sound of the paint brush engaging the canvas, in determining how the artist is feeling and doing. Verbal communication is also a strong component of the relationship as artist and model, together, probe possibilities and the general creative direction.

Environment is important. One model describes seeing the artist’s Erector Square studio for the first time: ​“I remember being immediately struck by the beauty of the studio; high ceilings, billowing white curtains that [swoosh] in with the wind every time a breeze comes through, and so much natural light. On the walls, all these little pieces of art.… Artistic inspiration everywhere you look…. I was immediately very comfortable,” she recalls.

During the video presentation, models reflect then pause; gazes are fixed for a period of time, except for the occasional blink. After several moments without dialogue, the viewer begins to get a sense of the models’ demanding job and the importance of their contribution as they project depth, complexity, and awareness.

The voices of women in painting, whether as subjects or creators, are advanced through this exhibit, and long overdue according to Fritchey. ​“Over the past 50 years, artists, curators and historians have worked to liberate the stereotypical portrayal of the female image by exploring facets of female identity, destabilizing representational stereotypes and highlighting the work of artists of varying sexual orientations who render the female nude,” she said.

Morelli is quite candid about his role as painter and the issues he confronts when settling in to begin the act of painting. ​“It’s an odd thing to be a painter,” he states during his stream of consciousness statement. For Morelli, a blank white canvas is ​“the worst thing in the world,” a condition sometimes remedied by taking a can of paint and throwing it at the canvas. ​“At least I have a problem,” he notes, in dashing the specter of blankness.

Fritchey has done a good job in presenting both artist and model perspectives, providing a window on the creative choreography essential to the process of resolution. Ultimately, however, it is the artwork that presents the most significant voice. Drawings and paintings reveal the internal lives of the subjects through intense marks, lines and strokes that seem to be born of urgency. Morelli’s gestural marks build upon one another as he reveals the internal presence of the subject, a moment in time, a thought.

Traditional academic renderings are not the goal for Morelli, though several of the pieces in the retrospective used to apply to the Yale School of Art in the early 1980s reveal a capacity for traditional portraiture and rendering. Technique aside, the images contain seeds of the same internal quality present in his more expressionistic earth-toned portraits. The artist, who is said to utilize a full palette of color when painting, gravitates toward muted mixtures that seem to be appropriate for the thoughtful, mood-invoking images he builds through a vocabulary of lines, strokes, drips and splashes. New Haven painter Joseph Adolphe has described Morelli as a ​“rock-solid painter,” observing that Morelli ​“lets the paint be the paint.” Adolphe said Morelli’s work represents ​“a collaborative effort between the artist and the oil at all times,” and to this we can add, models.

Though few days remain in the life of this exhibit, it is one worth visiting, offering perspectives that Fritchey has framed best: ​“At its core, this exhibition is an experiment in interpreting art objects through first person narratives, working to re-imagine the painter’s studio as a place where artist and model bring the work to life.”

The exhibit can be seen at Artspace at 50 Orange St. through June 17.