Bruno David presents Horses, an exhibition of paintings by the late artist William Griffin (1950-2020). Bruno David Gallery represents the William Griffin Estate.
William Griffin skillfully merges the techniques of classical masters with a contemporary perspective. His paintings showcase a distinctive approach where human figures are expressed through strong physical and emotional content. By employing a technique that focuses on the powerful essence of each gesture, Griffin creates a style that strips away extraneous details and is reminiscent of photography and film. These stylish oil paintings are within the long tradition of western painting and are influenced by early 20th century artists’ movement away from representational work. Bridging historical influences with modern perspectives, offering viewers an exploration of form in a refined and innovative manner.
Griffin’s personal style brings immediacy to his work. He integrates plasticity with decoration by creating large-scale paintings of movement in both human and animal bodies. His brushwork captures the essence of how bodies reflect and transform in fleeting moments of time, exploring the dynamic nature of physical form. By limiting his palate to grayscale values on the white primed surface, Griffin further accentuates two-dimensional solidity, confronting the viewer with an intimacy that resembles the encounter between the artist’s subjects.
In Griffins portrayal of horse legs, the viewer is introduced to his personal style, which creates a new and powerful tension by contrasting the enclosed volumes of figures with unpainted areas. In these paintings Griffin captures the dynamic energy, vitality, and muscularity of the horses’ legs in a single moment.
While Studying painting and sculpture at Washington University in St. Louis, Griffin was invited to create sculptures for the St. Louis Veiled Prophet Parade, centerpiece event of the annual July 4th holiday celebration in St. Louis. Griffin has served as Artistic Director of the parade since 1989, bringing that annual event national attention and prominence. Like other painters who’ve also worked as commercial artists, Griffin’s commercial experience has shaped and influenced his imaginative approach. His work has allowed him to explore a variety of styles and methods-producing public art, in sculpture and painted form, with a heightened interplay of illusion and reality.
In concurrence with the exhibition, Bruno David Gallery will publish a catalogue of the artist’s work with an in-depth exhibition history and bibliography.
