PDF - Current Image & Data

Woman Facing Wall (Primary Title)

John DeAndrea, American, born 1941 (Artist)

1978
American
Sculpture
oil on polyvinyl
Modern and Contemporary Art
Overall (board): 69 3/8 × 24 in. (176.21 × 60.96 cm)
85.535a-b
Not on view

"I’ve always worked with nude figures because the nudity reveals a lot more about a person."—John De Andrea

The realism of De Andrea’s early flesh-toned females often raised the question of whether he was creating art or replicating life. De Andrea cast from live models to capture exact proportions and then recreated minute surface details like scars and freckles. The unease with which one approaches these figures introduces a strong psychological dimension as viewers seemingly assume the role of voyeur.

Yet De Andrea also wanted his sculptures to be regarded as objects. In Woman Facing Wall, he replaced flesh tones with a gray scale, highlighting the body’s separate forms rather than its unity and alluding to the cool marble of classical sculpture. The segment of wall onto which De Andrea painted shadows calls further attention to the figure as a fabrication and not just a replica of life.

Gift of the Sydney and Frances Lewis Foundation
The Sydney and Frances Lewis Foundation Collection, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH, September 21 - November 9, 1980; Madison Art Center, Madison, WI, November 23, 1980 - January 18, 1981; Allen Prebe Art Gallery, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Oshkosh, WI, January 27 - March 15, 1981; Ulrich Museum, Wichita State University, Wichita, KS, April 1 - May 31, 1981; Morehead State University, Morehead, KY, Augsut 31 - October 16, 1981; Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, South Carolina, November 15, 1981 - January 10, 1982; University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, March 28 - May 30, 1982; Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA, September 10 - October 31, 1982; Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PA, November 14, 1982 - January 16, 1983; University Memorial Gallery, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, January 30 - March 13, 1983; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY, March 25 - May 29, 1983

Southwest Artist Series: John DeAndrea, 1978-81, Aspen Center for the Visual Arts, Aspen, CO, February 3 - 28, 1982

Seven on the Figure, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, September 21 - December 16, 1979

(O.K. Harris, New York) by 1978; Purchased by the Sydney and Frances Lewis Foundation, Richmond, Virginia, in November of 1978; Gift to Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA), Richmond, Virginia in October of 1985.
© John DeAndrea

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