Art Exhibit Reception & Artist Talk: "The Hovering Brush" by Jonathan Franklin

Artist Talk and Reception 
Artist Jonathan Franklin will lead a gallery talk through his exhibit, The Hovering Brush. Light refreshments will be provided.

The Hovering Brush by Jonathan Franklin will be on view December 9-January 17 in the Main Library Gallery.

From the artist
"There are too many artists to mention whose work I have admired over years and whose command of their subjects is as unique as it is formidable. Pablo Picasso’s Cubistic explorations portrayed his subjects from different perspectives at the same time. Egon Schiele’s sensuously contorted figures were enhanced even more by his subjects’ expressive hands. Max Beckmann’s paintings used stylized space and settings to explore myths and allegories. David Hockney’s draftsmanship was as effortless as it was intimate. Saul Steinberg’s cartoons were infused with wit and invention. 

"Like the great artists I cited above, I too use the paint brush to sketch some of my more muddled and unresolved ideas onto an empty canvas and then over a period of days, weeks, months, and even years, manage to transform those blobs of paint into recognizable shapes that evolve into painted portraits.

"It is to the simple paint brush that I dedicate this show. In each painting, questions can be asked, like: Why is that brush being wielded like a conductor’s baton? Why in another painting is it being held like a weapon? Is that character using a brush to paint his face? Is the brush actually a musical instrument or a magic wand? 

"My answer is, who knows? Painting is a mysterious act where there are no absolutes, only more questions. Perhaps the answers are hovering around the brush."

About the artist
Jonathan Franklin was born in Michigan but spent much of his childhood in Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Indonesia where his father worked as a civil engineer. After studying art at the University of Michigan, he moved to Israel where he lived on a kibbutz and began painting and later worked as a printmaker. 

Jonathan has worked as a set designer and painted many local murals. His other job was as an art educator conducting residencies and workshops in public and private schools throughout Chicago. As a visual artist for 50 years, Jonathan has concentrated mainly on painting and works on paper, and over the past five years has self-published over 100 books documenting his artwork.

For more about the artist, visit jfranklinart.com.