“Inventive”, “humorous”, “mysterious”, “funky” and “fanciful” are a few of the many colorful adjectives used to describe Stewart’s work. As critics have long noted, his totemic (usually black and white) figures, brilliantly realized in the commission for the Greater Rochester International Airport recall archaeological and mythological associations with primitive cultures. At same time, these moody works reflect contemporary trends in art, as well as current social/cultural interests in body decoration, whether piercing, tattooing or scarification.   If these “primitive” works (or “creatures) as one critic noted) seem to emerge from a darkened cavern within the artist’s imagination, other images cartoon-like landscape.   Brilliant color, expressive forms and whimsical characters that would feel at home in the circuses and “fun-zones” of our youth, or with The Beatles in The Yellow Submarine, characterize this playful work.

Stewart’s sculpture draws from both popular and primitive cultures.   They also reflect the artist’s immersion in some of the most interesting, if lesser known, art historical movements of the twentieth-century. The brilliant palettes and expressive, distorted forms of Karel Appel and the CoBrA group come to mind.   And, certainly, they share a common interest in folk art, children’s art and primitive art. Closer to home, is the so-called Bay Area  “Funk Art” movement of the 1960s—humorous, pop-oriented and irreverent in spirit.
 

Grant Holcomb, Director

Memorial Art Gallery/University of Rochester

 

Artist Statement

These are narrative pieces created utilizing assembled information obtained from innumerable sources over an extended period of time. Roots exist in personal experiences disguised and combined with actual and fictional events. Preplanning and a great deal of intuition are combined when fabricating these pieces. Images may be derived from or contain, in some convoluted way, social, political, or social commentary or they maybe strictly fictional, a total product of my imagination.

The piece tells a story. The story has: no beginning or end, it exists somewhere in between. An observer can move forward or backward, up and down. A non-linear chronology exists, a jigsaw puzzle that must be assembled.

The pieces are fragmentary, they consist of some objects and images that are not totally or easily recognizable. There exists a kaleidoscope or mosaic of images, marks, colors, shapes and textures. A hypersensitive surface forces the viewer to absorb much more information than under normal circumstances. The story can be narrated or observed on a visceral level.

Body decoration and costuming relative to popular and primal cultures has provided the foundation for some of my work. The visual, psychological and physiological effect upon the decorated and the viewer is significant.

Ideas obtained from objects such as toys, games and a variety of new and primitive artifacts are occasionallyTHUMPER salvaged and used as source material and assimilated into the work. How these objects communicate within the framework of the image is intriguing.

I am particularly fascinated by images and objects produced by children, folk and outsider artists. The ability to communicate without being encumbered by skill and technique yet with such honesty and passion is exemplary.

This assimilated information integrated with a working approach based on intuition and a spontaneous response to the magic of the imagination hopefully, produces objects that have an eccentric energy. The objects are somewhat on the edge, off center, humorous, weird, absurd or irreverent.

Bill Stewart

 

 

 


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