Raoul Middleman?s art depicts a reality exaggerated by years of experience.
In Pop to Plein-Air, C. Grimaldis Gallery exhibits more than 30 of Middleman?s drawings and paintings, including his acclaimed 1965 painting “Midnight Snack.”
The Baltimore artist?s raw caricatures, provocative narratives and stirring landscapes vary in size from 6 by 8 feet to 14 by 20 inches.
Middleman?s career reads backwards, he said. Unlike most, he started painting Pop art, “a jokey world of media,” before traditional landscapes.
“I thought [painting landscapes] was the dumbest thing you could do,” he said. “But here I was out [in nature] with cow piles and intolerable sun trying to do some work; I really enjoyed it because I couldn?t explain it.”
Middleman?s paintings are “passionate and full of velocity,” Maryland Institute College of Art Painting Department Chair Barry Nemett said. “Painting is the most natural act in the world for him, like breathing. His body reacts intuitively [to his subjects].”
With oil paints and watercolors, Middleman depicts exaggerated figures and Baltimore?s industrial scenes as well as lush lands in Italy, Massachusetts and local counties.
“Viewers get excited about [Middleman?s] work because it is so expressive,” said Erin Cluley, assistant director of C. Grimaldis Gallery, where the artist has exhibited since the early ?70s .
As a teacher at MICA for more than 40 years, Middleman teaches his students “not to have a narrow idea of art tradition or their own ambition,” he said. “I like to show them how to tell stories in their work and give it time. [Life as an artist is] an incredible risk-taking adventure.”
Pop to Plein-Air shows his range of ambition, Middleman said.
For artists, “a major breakthrough comes once in awhile, but most of the time you?re banging your head against limitations,” he said. “[Looking at the exhibit,] I can see the slight inflections over time and the changes. Viewing decades worth work, I see the years of my life have a meaning.”
If you go
Raoul Middleman?s “Pop to Plein-Air”
» Venue: C. Grimaldis Gallery, 523 N. Charles St., Baltimore
» Times: 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday through April 28
» Prices: $2,000 to $35,000
» More info: 410-539-1080, crgrimaldisgallery.com
