| Maker(s): | Gillespie, Gregory Joseph
| | Culture: | American (1936 - 2000)
| | Title: | Greg and Peg
| | Date Made: | 1991
| | Type: | Painting
| | Materials: | oil on wood
| | Place Made: | United States
| | Measurements: | panel: 12 1/2 in x 14 1/2 in; 31.75 cm x 36.83 cm
| | Narrative Inscription: | signature, dedication and date in pencil on verso: To Muriel & David with best regards Greg Gillespie 1991
| | Accession Number: | SC 2012.1.8
| | Credit Line: | Gift of The Pokross Art Collection, donated in accordance with the wishes of Muriel Kohn Pokross, class of 1934 by her children, Joan Pokross Curhan, class of 1959, William R. Pokross and David R. Pokross Jr. in loving memory of their parents, Muriel Kohn Pokross, class of 1934 and David R. Pokross
| | Museum Collection: | Smith College Museum of Art
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Description:
couple in bathing suits seated in folding beach chairs on sand in front of white and wood wall, he has his face resting in his hand and she is wearing a woven beach hat
Label Text:
Although Gregory Gillespie is considered to belong to a group of western Massachusetts artists referred to as the “Pioneer Valley Realists,” including Scott Prior, Randall Diehl, Frances Cohen Gillespie, and Jane Lund, Gillespie never considered himself a realist. The meticulous, representational approach he used for Greg and Peg, a portrait of the artist and his wife, is the style that most viewers associate with his work. However, Gillespie’s methods and subjects, as well as his choice of media, were wide ranging, as the four works by him in this installation demonstrate.
Gregory Gillespie studied at the Cooper Union in Manhattan, intending to become a commercial artist, until forays to the school library and to New York museums convinced him to become a painter. He earned an MFA at the San Francisco Art Institute, and traveled on a Fulbright grant to Florence, Italy, to study the works of the great early Renaissance painter Masaccio. Unlike Abstract Expressionist artists at the time, Gillespie wanted to “tell a story,” which he did in figural studies, landscapes, religious and allegorical works, and portraits. He created many self-portraits over the course of his career, describing it as a kind of meditation. This self-portrait, based on a photograph, shows Greg and Peggy sitting in lawn chairs outside the artist’s studio in Belchertown (immediately behind and framing them are the drawn, light-blocking shades of the large studio windows). Gillespie records the bright sun filtering through Peggy’s straw hat in a delicate filigree pattern of light and shadow on her face. The back of the panel is inscribed with a dedication to Muriel and David Pokross.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+2012.1.8 |
