MINING THE SURFACE
November 3rd - December 23rd, 2022
Reception: Saturday, November 5th, 6-8 pm
GEORGE DUNBAR
MINING THE SURFACE
November 3rd - December 23rd, 2022
GEORGE DUNBAR
GEORGE DUNBAR
“I enjoy revisiting and changing certain series. I am frequently asked which piece of my work is my favorite. My answer is: the one I have yet to create.”
- George Dunbar
MINING THE SURFACE
One of the most respected and influential artists of his generation, George Dunbar (b. 1927) continues to push the envelope of contemporary abstraction. Honored this year with the Opus Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by the Ogden Museum of Southern Art—and the subject of a forthcoming documentary produced by WLAE-TV and PBS— Dunbar at the age of 95 is debuting a suite of new mixed-media paintings at Callan Contemporary. The title of the exhibition and film, Mining the Surface, refers to the centuries-old techniques with which he transforms clay, marble paste, wood, pigment, and precious metals into masterpieces of visual allure, texturality, concentrated gestural energy, and Hard Edge geometry. The artworks in the exhibition span stylistic periods well known to his longtime admirers and collectors: Coin du Lestin, Surge, the Rag series, and Torregano, all created in his studio on Bayou Bonfouca.
Dunbar’s career began more than seven decades ago with studies at Tyler School of Art (Temple University, Philadelphia) and the Grande Chaumière Academy in Paris. He was active in New York City in the heyday of Abstract Expressionism, exhibiting alongside iconic AbEx painter Franz Kline in 1953. When he returned to his native Louisiana in 1957, he co- founded Orleans Gallery, a pioneering artist co-op that earned international acclaim. Since those formative years, his sculptures and paintings have been reviewed in leading publications such as The New York Times, Art in America, and ARTnews, and have been acquired into leading private, corporate, and institutional collections, among them the Whitney Museum of American Art, The British Museum (London), Ogden Museum, North Carolina Museum of Art, and New Orleans Museum of Art, which mounted the career surveys Dunbar: Mining the Surfaces (1997) and George Dunbar: Elements of Chance (2016-2017).
At the center of this beloved artist’s renown is his astonishing vitality, work ethic, perfectionism, and drive toward innovation. With their dialogue of Baroque materiality and Modernist sophistication, his compositions are dramatic yet nuanced, by turns opulent and immaculate, with a timelessness that evokes the objects of veneration we find in the world’s great temples and cathedrals. They are paintings simultaneously of their moment and for the ages, manifested by an artist of enduring vision and power.
- by Richard Speer
George Dunbar
Yamoria-Surge Series, 2019
Palladium ovef black and pale blue clay with incised lines
85h x 80w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Coin Du Lestin CXCVIII, 2022
white and blue clay with palladium leaf
62h x 50w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Tensas - Torregano Series, 2022
Red gold over dark red and white clay
38h x 44w in
George Dunbar
Astraeus - Rag Series, 2022
Acrylic over cloth bundles on canvas
49.50h x 61.50w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Bridge XXVI, 2022
Asian leaf over blue/gray clay with machined and hand incised engraving
36h x 48w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Kurbantes-Rag Series, 2022
canvas bundles, acrylic on canvas
37.50h x 49.50w in
George Dunbar
Yocana - Torregano Series, 2022
23 karat red gold leaf over black and red clay
42h x 50w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Erythrina Surge Series, 2022
palladium over blue and black clay
39.50h x 50w in
George Dunbar
Tallahalla-Surge Series, 2022
22 karat rose gold over taupe and white clay
19h x 25w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Rouville CXXIX, 2022
French gold over green and black clay with die keen
14h x 18w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Japonica-Surge Series, 2022
French gold over black and dark green clay with die keen
16h x 18w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Pascagoula - Surge Series, 2022
Asian, Rose and Moon gold over taupe clay
12h x 24w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Coin Du Lestin CCI, 2022
22 karat rose gold over dark gray clay
18h x 16w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Tillatoba - Rag Series, 2022
Acrylic over cloth bundles on canvas
42h x 66w in
George Dunbar
Eileithyia-Rag Series, 2022
Acrylic over cloth bundles on canvas
19.50h x 25.50w in
George Dunbar
Coin Du Lestin CXCVIII, 2022
White and blue clay with Palladium leaf
62h x 50w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Erythrina Surge Series, 2022
palladium over blue and black clay
39.50h x 50w in
George Dunbar
Yamoria-Surge Series, 2019
Palladium ovef black and pale blue clay with incised lines
85h x 80w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Rouville CXXIX, 2022
French gold over green and black clay with die keen
14h x 18w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Kurbantes-Rag Series, 2022
canvas bundles, acrylic on canvas
37.50h x 49.50w in
George Dunbar
Yocana - Torregano Series, 2022
23 karat red gold leaf over black and red clay
42h x 50w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Deity XX 2 of 5
Polished and lacquered, cast bronze mounted on granite base
24h x 24w x 12d in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Tensas - Torregano Series, 2022
red gold over dark red and white clay
38h x 44w in
George Dunbar
Eileithyia-Rag Series, 2022
Acrylic over cloth bundles on canvas
19.50h x 25.50w in
George Dunbar
Tallahalla-Surge Series, 2022
22 karat rose gold over taupe and white clay
19h x 25w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Flight in Bronze
Bronze cast with high polish and sealed finish
10.50h x 22w x 6.75d in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Tillatoba - Rag Series, 2022
Acrylic over cloth bundles on canvas
42h x 66w in
George Dunbar
Bridge XXVI, 2022
Asian leaf over blue/gray clay with machined and hand incised engraving
36h x 48w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Pascagoula - Surge Series, 2022
Asian, Rose and Moon gold over taupe clay
12h x 24w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Japonica-Surge Series, 2022
French gold over black and dark green clay with die keen
16h x 18w in
SOLD