(1944 -)
For the Coral Castle, 1995
acrylic on canvas
66 in. x 96 in.
Lynne Gelfman is an artist based in New York. She was trained in the formalist tradition of systematic construction. Each of Gelfman’s paintings is produced by means of a four-stage process. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College, (BA, 1966) and the School of the Arts, Columbia University, (MFA, 1968). She taught art at the Dalton School from 1968 until 1972, the year that she and her husband started a flower farm outside Bogotá¡, and moved to Miami, an import gateway for the flowers. For Gelfman, who had loved Bogotá¡ as an American Field Service student in 1961, the culture and landscape of Colombia as well as the diverse, subtropical world of Miami are important influences, along with her strong ties to New York.
For the Coral Castle is a painting that is reminiscent of an ancient stone wall that has been worn down by the “sands of time”. Gelfman goes through a long process to create this painting. She begins by layering a rough coat of gesso, which is the scored with a pallet knife in a diagonal crosshatch pattern. Next, she applies swirls of black and white paint, in the final stage, nearly all the expressive traces of her hand are eliminated from the surface of the painting with the aid of a power-sander.
[description:] Very rough surface, created to look like a worn down wall. Black colored, with a lot of abstract detail into it. Has some white highlights.
Gift of Anna Atkins Simkins