Friday, May 18, 2012

Francine Funke, An American National Treasure

by Carolee Ross
This feature article is copyrighted and may not be used without express permission of the author.

Francine Funke in her former Stamford Studio
photo by Carolee Ross

In reviewing the work of artist Francine Funke, I am reminded of the words of Dr. Meyer Shapiro at Columbia University, my art history mentor, who explained the difference between a competent technical artist and an artist who is a gifted genius.

He said, "In addition to the artistic skills and creative imagination that are the foundation of the work of art, the superbly gifted artist possesses an innate intelligence combined with an endless curiosity to try to make sense of the world he or she inhabits."

Throughout the more than twenty years we’ve known one another --Francine Funke's work has never disappointed me or fallen short of that definition. Hopefully, one day soon I’ll be writing about her retrospective exhibition and inclusion in the permanent collections at NYC’s Three Greats, The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art and the Guggenheim.

For Francine Funke has a multitude of skills, whether it be the creation of fine art, her expressive writing (Her book, “ON FIRE, poem and paintings”, is in the library collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the National Museum of Women in the Arts Library, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas, and the Cleveland Museum of Art). Add to that her innate problem-solving skills and ever-present curiosity and you’ve got an artist who will be celebrated in the annals of art history.

The Beginnings

            I first met Francine Funke at a Loft Artists party in downtown Stamford, Connecticut. Petite in stature, she was dressed as a ninja, ready for battle against any nemesis. She invited me to her studio to see her newest works and because I was always on the lookout for new artists to profile, I accepted. There, large sculptural wall pieces, sketches, appointment books and plans for new work filled almost every room, including an attic workshop/studio.

            Then, I was also told an intriguing secret. Rock music was playing everywhere and the petite artist started to dance. She looked at my expression of surprise and told me, “The connection between my art and dancing is simple. When I work, I play music, usually high energy rock. When I hear rock music, I must dance to it. So, I dance while I am working. Hopefully, the energy is transferred to the canvas or whatever else I am working on. I like to do art because I like to dance.”


            As we explored her wide range of work, she recalled a childhood filled with paints and pencils, and knew instinctively that she was an artist. Her work developed in a step-by-step evolution that began with her studies at Cornell University, where she studied with famed painters, Jim Dine and Robert Rauschenberg, received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts. She later completed her M.F.A. at Hunter College, working under the auspices of another group of New York greats – Tony Smith, Ray Parker and Robert Morris.
     
Lockwood Mansion
by Francine Funke
On view were her former series of chair paintings in all sizes, shapes and varieties, a theme she had explored for ten years. When she looked at a chair, she realized it was perfect because of her predilection for folding or “pop-up” pieces. “The distance between the fold, the length of the legs and the geometric planes lent themselves to the pop-up format,” she explained.

 Eventually the chairs metamorphosed into an entry piece for Rutgers National Sculpture Competition, a Christmas exhibit at the Vanderwoude Tananbaum Gallery in New York and group exhibitions including the Aldrich Museum in Ridgefield and the Bruce Museum in Greenwich. There was also the excitement of having her work displayed in Tiffany’s window, although Ms. Funke insists that doing the work is always more of a thrill than showing it. Awards were plentiful for the artist and her cacophony of chairs, including the award for sculpture at the Hudson River Museum’s 68th Annual Competition and inclusion in the Connecticut Commission on the Arts “Artists’ Showcase,” by Alan Chastick, then director of the Yale University Art Gallery.



Fireworks Explode
The Kuwaiti "Plume" Series
Part of the Fireworks Series
by Francine Funke
Photo by Carolee Ross


            With all this success, why did Francine Funke start creating fireworks?  The space at the Barbara Braathen Gallery where she was having a show was “humongous, making everything look tiny,” said Funke. “Most of the pieces were in black and white. They needed some color.” So, striations of red and orange were added in a spontaneous gesture. Combining with the vortex created by the swirling moment of the special Oriental paper she used, the color had an incendiary effect and fire was born.

            “At the same time I started to add flames to my work, things started happening,” Funke added. “The war in Kuwait, the explosions, the fun fire, inspired me to do the “Plume” series, a reaction to Hussein’s destruction of the Kuwaiti oil fields.” In the Plume works, the backgrounds became ominous, dark maroon-red as fire mushrooms against the sky. “I learned about the fingers of fire, explosions and the renewal that fire gives, the purging which creates new life and new growth,” explained Funke.

            In creating the sculptured paintings from strips of Oriental rice paper, the artist fractures and reshapes the forms into richly textured planes that overlap and intertwine against a background of velvety blacks and grays. Treating the works as abstract explorations, they become the quintessence of fire.

            Her installation, “Plumes,” traveled to the Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the Scottsdale Center for the Arts in Scottsdale, Arizona, the Discovery Museum in Bridgeport and the Russell Senate Rotunda on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, where her exhibition was sponsored by Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut. “The colors in these works jump off the canvas,” said the Senator. “I feel as though I am there, in the midst of destruction.”


The Lost and Found Series - Acrylic and Analine Dye on Canvas
Midnight Bouquet #2
by Francine Funke


Francine Funke writes:

“These works deal with the emptiness left by fire and destruction
and the process of rebirth that inevitably follows.
Emerging from the ashes, the loss, and the despair,
the human spirit must find nature and beauty in order to survive
In the Lost and Found Series, as in nature,
botanical forms are the first to emerge from obscurity.

These paintings are symbols of the persistence of life in its most elemental form

in a world sometimes filled with tragedy and darkness.”

       The name Lost and Found came from the process involved in the creation of the artwork.

       Writes Funke in her Lost and Found artist’s statement: “I laid down many colors on the canvas, and then covered the entire canvas with an overlay of deep sepia color. Then I used a solvent to remove that wash and reveal the color underneath. I removed the color, thinking of a botanical motif. It was a rather child-like process, as, when we were kids, we put down scribbles of colored crayons, then covered the whole thing with black crayon--and then used a pencil to draw. The multi-colored lines underneath were always a surprise. I wanted a very old world deep feeling--like a Rembrandt painting.

Solar Bouquet
by Francine Funke






















The Mechanical Botanical Series

Fran says, “After the Epiphany--the flood gates opened wide! I started taking photographs and scans of every flower, weed, branch, leaf that I could find. These botanical ingredients were the "raw materials" for composing my mutated bouquets. Because I was manipulating everything on the computer (flipping, turning elongating, duplicating) -- whatever I envisioned in my mind, I could create immediately on the computer screen, at record speed. It was instant gratification!



         Sometimes, I did not even know the exact progression of the work, or remember what I actually did-- because it was going so fast.

         And, with every click of my mouse, I was amazed at the intricacies and other worldliness of the fruits of my labor.


        I was on a wild visual, kaleidoscopic ride in which the combinations and manipulations

of my new creations were limited only by the limits of my imagination





Artist’s Statement about the Mechanical Botanical Series

By Francine Funke

The Flower of Notre Dame
by Francine Funke
        The “Mechanical Botanical” Series, deals with the effects of Technology on Nature. This new work combines photography, traditional subject matter, digital technology, and my personal artistic vision.

        The Mechanical Botanical Series builds upon my recent interest in the persistence and rejuvenation of plant life. All aspects of existence on earth are inter-dependent, and continually developing, changing, and mutating. Based on that premise, how will advances in modern science alter organic forms? And how will that phenomenon ultimately be manifested?

        As an artist, all my skills and experiences ultimately influence my artwork—and in this case, it was my knowledge of photography and the computer that led me on an exciting journey of transforming beautiful botanical forms into a “weird science” composed of strangely exquisite “techno-mutations”.

        The discovery of the “Mechanical Botanical” Series was an epiphany, and the process of creating this work is intensely cerebral. In my mind, I can manipulate and alter form and shape—and the computer will magically render it visually. My collaboration with the camera and the computer never fails to surprise and amaze me in some way—and I am perpetually learning from the results of our efforts.

        In the end, the “Mechanical Botanical” Series hopefully provides the viewer with a new and startling way of looking at the world we now inhabit—and perhaps even a glimpse into the hybrid universe of tomorrow.
Francine Funke's Mechanical Botanical #3 will appear at The Creative Arts Workshop, 80 Audubon Street, New Haven, CT 06510,  (203) 562-4927 creativeartsworkshop.org  - opening tonight, May 18, 2012 and runs through June 22:  Boundless: New Works in Contemporary Printmaking,  A National Exhibition with Juror Anne Coffin  ,
Opening Reception: Friday, May 18, 5:30 - 7:30 pm
Free and open to the public





















           






















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