Echo
Artist
Joseph Bernard
(American)
Date1989
MediumFilm, urethane, tape
Dimensions96 × 48 in. (243.8 × 121.9 cm)
ClassificationsPainting
Object numberUAC2655
DescriptionA very traditional piece, by Joseph Barnard standards, in the use of film as a medium in and of itself rather than just to be seen on the screen. This long mixed media painting is done on composite board which adds to its interesting texture, and texture is one of the main points of interest in this piece. The film itself adds to this, as it runs in strips across the middle of the painting inside the blue squares. Though only faint traces show through the thick black bars and densely decorated center rectangle; small textural dots from the edges and a faint orange-brown color bleed through.Texture and pattern are of interest to Bernard here, the whole center working as a kind of patterning space that is defined by the lines from the strips of film. There is a complexity to the middle design that is, in a more stationary way, like a film. There is a patterning and repetition of blue bars throughout, but broken up by more chaotic splatters and feather-like motifs that reveal a tension between what is naturally produced and what keeps it coherent artificially. An echoing of the tension between structure and creativity.
Joseph Bernard was born in Port Chester, NY, educated at the University of Hartford Art School and School of the Art Institute of Chicago and for 35 years Bernard taught fine arts at Detroit’s College for Creative Studies. Experimental collage sensibilities are evident in his paintings, films and photographs. Contemporary poetry and music remain as influences along with his extensive travels. His films have been exhibited at Toronto’s Funnel Theatre, Detroit Institute of Arts, Chicago Filmmakers, Rutgers University, San Francisco Cinematheque, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Dartmouth College, Indiana University Cinema, Third Man Records in both Nashville & Detroit and NYC’s Museum of Modern Art, among others. Joseph Bernard and wife, MariaLuisa Belmonte, live in Troy, Michigan.
Written by Alex Heath
