In May, I entered these studies for the Salmagundi Club’s Library door competition. Contestants were to come up with an allegorical theme that represented the NYC club’s history and philosophy (see my proposal below). My studies weren't chosen for the doors (congratulations to Noah Buchanan!), but they are being exhibited at the Salmagundi Club with a number of other great entries. Another diptych of mine - Florence Twice (two alla prima paintings of the same pose from different perspectives) - will also be hanging in the show.
Project Proposal
For well over a century, the Salmagundi Club’s Library has served its artistic community as a link between our creative heritage and our potential for new growth. With this in mind, I propose that the two painted panels of the Club’s library doors open and close around the allegorical themes of Innovation & Tradition.
The main figure of the two unified compositions raises and reflects in the form of Innovation. In the first panel, she emerges with vulnerability and a sense of strength from a collective pool of experience and wisdom. One foot is submerged within Tradition as Innovation reaches upward; her gaze fixed upon a new horizon. In the second panel, she self reflects upon Tradition in the context of culture’s previous peaks. Though transcendent, Innovation still maintains contact with the past.
The two panels are compositionally woven together through narrative and geometry. Each stands on its own, but the composition achieves wholeness via the synthesis of Innovation’s evolution, self reflection and her unbreakable tie to Tradition. I believe that the thematic integrity of these panels will resonate with the Salmagundi Club’s own esteemed philosophy.
Florence Twice | France 2019