Landscape with Birch Tree (Primary Title)
Gregory Gillespie, American, 1936 - 2000 (Artist)
"You can’t paint nature; there’s no way of doing it. There’s no way of making a replica, or reproducing something which is infinite, which just goes on forever." —Gregory Gillespie
In the 1970s, Gillespie’s acute attention to naturalistic details aligned him with realism. However, more than an accurate representation of an observable scene, realism in Gillespie’s work meant the obsessive layering of details to convey a near hallucinatory focus that suggests other-worldliness.
Suchambiguity of place and time pervades much of Gillespie’s imagery. From self-portraits to landscapes, his works impart a sense of isolation. Gillespie often spoke of his excruciating anxiety and of painting as his means of escape. Dense, overwrought images such as Landscape with Birch Trees might be viewed as the setting both of his extreme personal alienation and of his release.
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