Joseph
Fuchs is carefully creating a world. His world, peopled with
Pulcinella, a masked clown from commedia dell'arte, resides in
Venice. Each painting of this microcosm reflects some aspect,
action or emotion of the real world.
Someone asked him once,
"Why place a clown in the scene? Why not just paint the
cityscapes?" He answered with an observation: "I once bought a
bronze replica of the faun that sat in a villa in Pompeii. I
placed it in the center of the backyard lawn. With its presence,
the garden has become animated. Pulcinella does the same for my
Venetian paintings." Fuchs can draw this figure with ease. The
stances evolve often as he draws Pulcinella. He refines the
figure as the composition progresses, but many figures flow
directly from this collective experiences. Training as a
portrait painter and years of continuous sketching have given
him the skill to produce at will Pulcinella in any pose.
The steps he takes to complete a
work consist of a planned progression. The cityscapes evolve
from a montage of photographs of Venice. He peoples these scenes
from his imagination. He manipulates a series of photographic
scenes until they perfectly fit a well thought out narrative
idea. This combination results in a unique, dramatic metaphor
centered on Pulcinella as the main thrust of the composition. In
ink he executes a completed sketch in a book that records all
his plans for his sepia watercolors, which set up the values of
the composition. He then transfers the image onto linen canvas.
He traces over the pencil image in indelible ink and then
removes the pencil with turpentine. He starts to paint with the
darkest values and evenly works around the canvas. He usually
completes the work with the whites of the Pulcinelli. After a
period of drying, he seals the canvas with a medium reflective
varnish.
Definite rules abide in Fuchs's
visual world.
The majority of his paintings have figures of Pulcinella in Venice. Pulcinella is the only masked figure who
cannot remove his mask, and for this reason Pulcinella
represents all that one could or would want to be. The
boundaries of Pulcinella's world, therefore, are not finite. His
world only knows the limits of the human spirit, a continuum
that bounces back and forth between comedy and tragedy, weakness
and strength, love and hate. With Pulcinella in his masked
state, Fuchs is free to explore all corners of human nature. He
has been painting Pulcinella since 1982.
Stylistically, Fuchs concentrates
on several aspects. Gestures abound and in many instances direct
the eye around the canvas. The contrapostal positions,
especially the lines established by Pulcinella's hat, direct the
eye around the composition. Fuchs works very attentively with
the eye movement, for he is very concerned that the flow of the
composition is smooth. He fastidiously applies paint. In many
instances each paint stroke is a different color. Usually he
paints with a brush one-fourth inch wide. He applies paint by
several methods: glazing, layering of partially opaque color and
painting color side-by-side.
Joseph's art works are exhibited at
Pearl Canyon Art Gallery
Carmel California.
Carmel
Monterey
- Artist