Art, Quite Simply Art

"Sundown, The Crossing" 1999 by Harvey Dinnerstein. Oil on canvas.

"It was formative [the recognition that the tradition of 19th Century artists called his aesthetic to respond in kind]. The drawings that I did were mostly incidental and reportorial. I think they were effective, but at some point I started to realize that it wasn't enough just to record incidents. One had to reach beyond the narrative, beyond the moment, for something deeper, more transcendent ... to some other level of perception."
"It was the beginning of a way of thinking that affected many of the things that I would do later [as an artist]."
"The biggest challenge [is] to have a visual idea that's personal relevant to myself as I see the world around me."
"It is difficult to explain. It is being open and having an insatiable curiosity [for] anything that is happening. That's a small part of it."
"The vast diversity of humanity in the city, more so today than ever, seems to me especially focused underground."
"I've never planted a tree in my life. I do them in this space [committing his art to canvas in his studio]. It's kind of crazy with all this stuff in here."
Harvey Dinnerstein, visual artist, New York City, New York

Artist Harvey Dinnerstein in his studio in Brooklyn, New York, on May 31, 2017. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Just as a writer of novels makes use of his personal history and adds a healthy dose of fantasy to his/her novels to create a work of fiction that resonates with the personal and the whimsical to invite the reading public to a treat for their minds and imaginations to run free, so too did this artist who had 'never planted a tree in his life', place himself within the context of a painting showing a gardener at his task among flowers, busy with the planting of a tree, wheelbarrow holding garden soil beside him. It is an original vision, a painting of strength, unlimited talent and vibrant beauty.

Some viewers might recoil at the sight of an aged man, upper torso revealed, intent on his task, handling a tree, beside him bright and piquant colours of a floral display against a glowing backdrop. But this man has not shied away from the beauty of the human figure even in old age, for he is well into his eighties and has no intention of submitting to the years other than to make the most of all the opportunities the future years will afford him. He is a classical figurative painter. Many of whose paintings reflect family scenes, city life, the seasons and visual conceptions that artists before him focused on.

He is skilled and driven to paint life and his vision of eternity. Classical depictions of mythology are not beyond him; myths they may be, but they involve human nature and mankind interacting with the faith of a higher intelligence. The visual documentation of humankind's ventures in love and war, the emergence of cultural variants and the measures that humans employ to advance their interests and communicate with one another can all be depicted as they are envisioned in the past, and as they take place at the present.

Artist Harvey Dinnerstein in his studio. Photo: Samira Bouaou

As a realist artist he moved in his youth among others whose love of art mirrored his own. While the art world became immersed and enthused with non-objective art and the theories of modernism, he and his peers clung to the classical tradition of depicting nature and the human form as they appear to us realistically. That type of art is classified by this man as the humanist traditions of the past. The art of the Renaissance with its lavish splendour and ebullience along with later naturalist and realist artists patterned his own version of rendering timeless art under his brush and his signature.

“Walking Together, Montgomery,” 1956, by Harvey Dinnerstein. Charcoal on paper, 17 1/4 inches by 

25 7/8 inches. (Courtesy of Harvey Dinnerstein)

 

He took inspiration from the civil rights movement, from poetry, from everyday scenes of life he witnessed, and accustomed himself to carrying a notebook where he could jot down a 'cartoon' sketch that he might later, in his studio use as a guide to his memory to expand and detail into a painting. It is what many artists married to their work do, to jog memory and outline what they will at a later date elaborate upon in the commission of an artwork.

The quality of this man's depiction of landscape and figures speaks to his passion for his art. It is a passion that communicates itself to the eye of the beholder. Viewing his paintings, no explanation is required for they speak for themselves. It can be readily determined what Mr Dinnerstein meant to convey, and succeeded admirably in doing so. This is the kind of art that has its peers in the past, less so in the present, overshadowed in the world of art by the bogus productions in demand by buyers who believe the art 'experts' who claim abstract art represents fine art.

"In the Kitchen" 1960-61 by Harvey Dinnerstein, Oil on Canvass, Courtesy Harvey Dinnerstein