2011/12

Artwork typically involves my undertaking some investigation; making research, taking notes. In Rome, I counted heads; on papal crests, on flags. That investigation was all about black bodies; black heads, and heraldry. I was thinking ‘occupy’, and protofeudalism; and I was looking at the city vis-a-vis the most beautiful counterfeit bags. And I was thinking, trompe l’oeil curating; and looking at Pieter Hugo,  Marlene Dumas; and Craig Redman. I was interested with the psychology of portraiture, the power of symbol; and the heraldic charge, maure, which came to dominate my research. 

Vatican City, (my representative work) considers variations on a theme. Each row marks an encounter with different forms of the same symbol. The first row are maure I found and sketched at the Vatican museum. The second row are Sos Bator Moros, or Four Moors of the Sardinian flag. The third row are transformations of the Moor of Freising, heraldic charge of the current pope. The final row are Senegalese bag sellers whose likenesses I have captured.  I was thinking of old botanical lithographs and Phrenology.

My biggest influence was always Janson’s History of Art, and where I fit in this first person singular narrative. Recently I have been interested in expanding my knowledge base.  Tokyo, (in 2005 and 6), was about cultural collapse; played out as fashion. Paris and NYC, (in 2010 and 11), were about assemblage and collage. The show I gave in my home town was about painting. Gender and representation were also involved. That was 2007. I should have graduated in 2004 but my dad was sick and uninsured, so I dropped out instead. We hit rock bottom and I discovered the utility of collage in 2003. Growing up I benefited from all sorts of privileges. I was homeschooled from age nine to eighteen, and in that time became acculturated to independent study.  I met Dr. Roman Johnson and learned to paint in 1996,  the year he turned 80. I served as an apprentice in his studio-barn, beginning at age 14 until matriculating in 2000. 

When Cy Tyombly died I was in Rome. Standing there before, La Caduta di Iperione: 1962, I thought briefly, have I ever used paint? I mean, really used it. Really. This demonstration was fully plastic. The scale and tactility I thought really suited that place. But beyond any of his technique, its brilliance, or my own self-doubt; was the transcendent voice of the artist, ringing and clear.  It was a total vision of the world and it was unmistakably his own.  “That is what I need from my practice”, I thought. 

I need to consolidate;  gather my disparate influences and interests together, to magnify my voice. I need to enter a program of graduate study where I can use probative criticism and pointed inquiry to begin the process of clarification. I need to answer the question: What is an Evan Nabrit.