Winston Wächter Fine Art  is pleased to announce About 1865, a solo show of new work by  Tony Scherman. The American Civil War is the subject of this new series of paintings and drawings. The exhibition catalogue (co-published with Georgia Scherman Projects in Toronto) will feature an essay by art critic and writer Lilly Wei.

These are not history paintings in the traditional sense.  Rather, Scherman has created a series of iconic portraits of key players and symbols that together tell an idiosyncratic and intimate story about this period in American history. Taken together, Scherman has created what he calls "an interrogation, a meditation, a poem." Pre-war luxury food items such as shrimp and pheasant (under the heading “Better Days”) stand next to emaciated dogs, anonymous slaves, Klansmen, and the dangling feet of a lynching victim, all crucial components in Scherman's interpretation of these events.

Some of the largest scale works, Scherman's iconic portraits of the War's more famous/infamous characters, include President Lincoln, and Generals Grant, Sherman and Lee.  Scherman's canvases are slowly built up with layers of encaustic and in the case of these works, cornmeal, for surfaces that are incredibly dense and lush. As individual works, they are haunting, isolated faces and objects that emerge from indistinct and mysterious backgrounds.  These formal characteristics, as well as Scherman's frenetic brushwork, give each work a sense of poignancy and, at the same time, urgency. There is no where for the subject or the viewer to hide in this confrontation. 


For further information, please contact Amanda Snyder at 212-327-2526.