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Daniel Clarke: Long Island

By Peggy Roalf   Thursday August 12, 2021

The drawing practice of Daniel Clarke, a Paris-based artist from Southampton, New York, is brought to life in a new book from Steidl. Comprised of 66 color images of his mostly large-scale works in a mix of charcoal, watercolor and pastel, at times incorporating found paper and collage—together with an interview by photographer and filmmaker, Diana Michenerthe book offers an intimate view of the artist at work. Above: Windstille, (watercolor and pastel on paper, left); So you love football (watercolor and pastel on paper)

The title suggests an exploration of Daniel Clarke's origins. In the interview he talks about finding a new way of working through memories rather than from photographs, which was his previous—and fairly recently discarded—method. Speaking about his process, he says, “…I start to draw and the ideas take shape, not always right away, sometimes it’s just a big mess and then I will draw back into it, or erase it all and start again. There are moments I want to talk about, or something triggers something and I want to develop it. The work used to be a pre-conceived assembly of ideas and then they would be brought together on the paper or canvas, and executed. Now it has become this kind of magical process, where the work begins and continues. It’s very mysterious, and now I can’t really understand how I could have worked so many years differently.” He adds, “For me it is about getting to the point where I am working in the room and I cease to exist.” Dozens of male figures, striding (away from Long Island?) populate the volume, such as those on facing pages, above.

The layered quality of drawings made and studied for the truth being sought, not in an afternoon but over a period of months, is evident in these autobiographical reflections of time, place, people, and stuff. Clarke refers to his father’s workshop, littered with tools and the kind of mess made by a tinkerer who liked to fix things “albeit poorly, there was paint everywhere; dripping paint marking the table, dried brushes strewn on the floor, and I was thinking to myself, This could also be my vocabulary….So some of those objects started to come into the drawings and paintings too, as a way of thinking that if I looked at it hard enough maybe something else would come back to me.” 

The 13 untitled black-and-white woodcuts that comprise the endpapers introduce this idea, with the seventh, a close-up [of the artist’s? his father's?] hand. And the first of the color drawings, Choking up while Dad goes 4 down confirms the logic that continues through the making of these bold and confident marks.

Above:  Rose of Sharon (charcoal and pastel on paper, left); Rose of Sharon (charcoal and pastel on paper, right)


In the interview, Clarke refers to visual, rather than photographic memory—that came about by mark-making through sensation rather than through thinking. “The drawings spontaneously started to talk to me, talk about present-day me, childhood-me, fantasy-me real-me and I just let it happen. The work became a bit rougher than what I had done before. I said to myself Just make the work, so what if the hands are a bit weird, well the hands are a bit weird, try to think beyond representation and use the figure as a vehicle for memory, and at the same time as a formal element withing the drawing."

In the figural images that have a painterly feel, such as Close to the water’s edge, he offers the sensation of warmth, light, and a humid atmosphere that couldn’t be more the opposite of “photographic truth;” likewise in Rose of Sharon. Clarke’s admitted fondness for Matisse is evident in several images in the book, here, In the midst of mourning I see you (gouache and pastel on paper, left) and in Polendina (Yucca), gouache and pastel on paper, on its facing page in the book

The book as an object is a fine object indeed: the rounded spine and French groove, and the heavy vellum-finish paper suggest a hand-built artist book. 

Daniel Clarke: Long Island by Daniel Clarke with an Interview by Diana Michener (Steidl 2021) is available in stores and online. Images © copyright Daniel Clarke, courtesy of Steidl.

Born in 1971 in Southampton, New York, Daniel Clarke completed his studies at Yale University in 1993, before moving to Paris where he has lived and worked since. Clarke has exhibited throughout Europe and the United States, and his work is held in prominent public and private collections, including the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence; and Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, New Haven. He is represented by Galerie Françoise Besson in Lyon and Planthouse Gallery in New York. 

 


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