ART
An Interview with Marc Handelman
/ Paddy Johnson
07.13.06
The viewing experience Marc Handelman creates is not one of comfort - his unsettling work references a history of painting that ranges from the Hudson River School to Abstract Expressionism to Thomas Kinkade, and depicts troubling landscapes, billboards and nationalistic iconography. Neither of these things is particularly chilling in and of themselves, but it is Handelman’s virtuoso handling of light that makes the subject matter take on a dark and sometimes even sinister feel. The result is varied, but always leaves the viewer with an indefinable yet very clear disquieted feeling.
During our conversation at his studio, Handelman described the “warm peachy light” of a Sanford Gifford painting as being so disarming that he imagined the feeling might be comparable to lethal injection. It wasn’t until afterward that it occurred to me that M.L. Sheil, a novelist at the turn of the century, had similar ideas. In 1901, he published a book called The Purple Cloud, which tells the story of a man who manages to survive the poisonous aroma of peach blossom brought by a fog that wipes out the Earth’s population. There are countless examples throughout history that show the suspect nature of extreme sweetness, and while Handelman’s paintings are not so singular, they certainly touch upon this idea and reveal its presence within various forms of propaganda. His 2006 painting vision is based on Frederick Church’s saccharine Civil War propaganda painting “Our Banner in the Sky” (1860) and draws upon a contemporary palette commonly used in the fields of advertising, news and even mass produced paintings to illustrate this point. Furthering this idea, Handelman pointed out that “Lichtdom,” created by Hitler’s chief architect Albert Speer, was part of the famous 1937 rally in Nuremburg, and partially inspired “The Tribute in Light” at ground zero in New York City, (a memorial that interestingly showed up in aspects of FOX News billboards, and are inspiration for some of the artist’s paintings).
The influence of artists like Speer came up more than once during my studio visit, and I was left with the feeling that there was much more to say on the subject. The purpose of the conversation that took place over email was to further explore how these influences shape what the viewer sees, and to suss out to what capacity his studio practice informs the paintings.
During our conversation at his studio, Handelman described the “warm peachy light” of a Sanford Gifford painting as being so disarming that he imagined the feeling might be comparable to lethal injection. It wasn’t until afterward that it occurred to me that M.L. Sheil, a novelist at the turn of the century, had similar ideas. In 1901, he published a book called The Purple Cloud, which tells the story of a man who manages to survive the poisonous aroma of peach blossom brought by a fog that wipes out the Earth’s population. There are countless examples throughout history that show the suspect nature of extreme sweetness, and while Handelman’s paintings are not so singular, they certainly touch upon this idea and reveal its presence within various forms of propaganda. His 2006 painting vision is based on Frederick Church’s saccharine Civil War propaganda painting “Our Banner in the Sky” (1860) and draws upon a contemporary palette commonly used in the fields of advertising, news and even mass produced paintings to illustrate this point. Furthering this idea, Handelman pointed out that “Lichtdom,” created by Hitler’s chief architect Albert Speer, was part of the famous 1937 rally in Nuremburg, and partially inspired “The Tribute in Light” at ground zero in New York City, (a memorial that interestingly showed up in aspects of FOX News billboards, and are inspiration for some of the artist’s paintings).
The influence of artists like Speer came up more than once during my studio visit, and I was left with the feeling that there was much more to say on the subject. The purpose of the conversation that took place over email was to further explore how these influences shape what the viewer sees, and to suss out to what capacity his studio practice informs the paintings.
