William Fares
Fares has been included in the Whitney Biennial and numerous solo and group exhibitions. His work is part of the collection of the Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Paris France as well as many private and corporate collections in the USA, Mexico and Europe. He has also received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Detweller Endowment and has exhibited extensively throughout the United States, Mexico and Europe. He divides his time between San Miguel de Allende and New York.
‘El Ojo de Dios’ (The Eye of God) and ‘Getting To Nothing,’ the self-referential works of William Fares:
If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, Infinite. William Blake
Trying to get to something that does not exist may seen like a waste of time, but for William Fares’ its been a life time pursuit. This is the New York artist’s first solo exhibition in Mexico.
The exhibition at The Skot Foreman’s Fine Art Gallery in the Fabrica la Aurora exemplifies the idea that the less there is to look at, the more one should look.
The works in this exhibition are those of a literalist, a ‘maker’, they are not pictures or illustrations of something else; they are literally the things themselves. What constitutes this artist's understanding of image development is confined within the materials and the act of problem solving and although the images are made up from geometric configurations; they are not about them.
As with any art throughout history, the relationship of being and not being is expressed differently from one generation to the next. Individual experiences and sensibility of ‘making and unmaking ’are contained within each work the artists produce. But what I find interesting about Fares’ work is how he deals with the ideas of figure/ ground, being and non being, in very real and physical terms without deferring the relationship off to the wall or some other surface
‘Ojo de Dios.’ The sole painting in the exhibition needs no company. The only image is a floating flat, gray circle with an oval hole within it that is centered on the golden vertical canvas. The center changes from a hole to a round ball as the viewer moves from one side to the other. The central gray image is almost the same value as the ground it is on and seems to disappear because it is being looked at. And depending where the viewer stands, the painting’s ground changes color, from gold to red or to yellow and the central image changes shape and color as well. Everything is in constant flux, including the viewer.
Obviously this painting is not meant to be viewed solely from the front. Instead it encourages multiple points of view and because of it “Ojo de Dios” feels like its multiple paintings, a triptych, if you will. There is a presence in its none-ness that is disturbing.. If this is the ‘Eye of God’ it is elusive.
In order to get to ‘Ojo de Dios’ one must pass through the main exhibition gallery.
The multiple series of ‘works on paper’ contained within the front gallery are objects of manipulation. What I mean by that is both the figure and the ground are expanded and/or reduced in the process of opening and ‘drawing back’ to expose the paper’s interior. The ground takes on a new meaning and is valued on a different yet equal plane then the image that occupies it. The exposed interior’s physicality reduces and expands the relationship of being and not being.
What constitutes the integrity of an image (figure) as well as the space (ground) it occupies is drawn into question. ‘Reduction and expansion’ form the catalyst for the different variations of the artists understanding of ‘getting to nothing’.
The ‘paper works’ are set in brutally constructed steel frames that seem to function as vaults meant to contain their physicality.
There is no need to look beyond these works for their inspiration; they are not abstracted from anything else. They are self-referential and are themselves the point of their own origin.
For Fares making art is not about communication, or a search for constructs or absolutes; for him, art is about resistance to the common and accepted while trying to get to something that does not exist
by Joonas Maailmanpalo
C.V.
BORN Compton, CA 1942
SELECTED INDIVIDUAL EXHIBITIONS
2019-20 El Museo Iconográfico del Quijote, Guanajuato, Mex
2019-20 Skot Foreman Galleria, San Miguel de Allende, Mex
2017 Skot Foreman Galleria, San Miguel de Allende, Mex
2013 Skot Foreman Galleria, San Miguel de Allende, Mex
2003 Andre Zarre Gallery, New York, NY
2000 Andre Zarre Gallery, New York, NY
1986 Greenhald Gallery, New York, NY
1985 Ted Greenhald Gallery, New York, NY
1982 Vanwickle Gallery, Lafayette College, Allentown, PA
1980 Palluel Gallery, Paris, France
1979 Greene Street Gallery, New York, NY
Wahl Gallery, Long Island, NY
1978 Stevenson & Palluel Gallery, New York, NY
1977 Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL
1976 Rosa Esman Gallery, New York, NY
John Doyle Gallery, Paris, France
1975 Rosa Esman Gallery, New York, NY (March)
Rosa Esman Gallery, New York, NY (November)
1974 John Doyle Gallery, Chicago, IL
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2014-20 Skot Foreman Gallery, San Miguel de Allende, Mex
2014 Four Artists/Four Geometries, Bellas Artes, San Miguel de Allende, Mex
2013 Skot Foreman Gallery, San Miguel de Allende, Mex
2006 Andre Zarre Gallery, New York, NY
2005 Andre Zarre Gallery, New York, NY
2004 Andre Zarre Gallery, New York, NY
2003 Andre Zarre Gallery, New York, NY
2002 Andre Zarre Gallery, New York, NY
2000 Andre Zarre Gallery, New York, NY
1997 Andre Zarre Gallery, New York, NY
1994 Andre Zarre Gallery, New York, NY
1984 Jersey City Museum, Jersey City, NJ
1979 Jefferson County Historical Society, Watertown, NY
Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
Simsar Gallery, Ann Arbor, MI
Texas Gallery, Houston, TX
1978-80 Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, United States and Europe
1978 Artist Space, New York, NY
Stamford Museum, Stamford, CT
Mill Gallery, Guilford, CT
1977 UniversityGalleries Traveling Exhibition
Independent Curators, Inc. for the University of North Dekota; Galleries included:Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OHNational Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.Minnesota Museum of Art, Saint Paul, MNRosa Esman Gallery, New York, NYCenter for the Arts, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA
1976 Rosa Esman Gallery, New York, NY
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York, NY
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Boston, MA
Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA
Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA
1975 Weatherspoon Gallery, Greensboro, NC
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Whitney Museum of American Art, Indianapolis, NY
Gallerie Monet, Brussels, Belgium
Vassar College Art Museum, Poughkeepsie, NY
Rosa Esman Gallery, New York, NY
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN
Contemporary Arts Museum, Cincinnati, OH
Texas Gallery, Houston, TX
Michael Wyman Gallery, Chicago, IL
1972 John Bergruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA
GRANTS
National Endowment for the Arts
Detwiller Endowment
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
National Art Museum of Paris, Paris, France
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
Yale Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco CA
Neuberger Museum, State University Of New York
Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York, NY
Muhlenberg Center for the Arts, Allentown, PA
Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, NY
Prudential Insurance Company, Newark, NY
AT&T, New York, NY
Whitney Communications, New York, NY
McCrory Corporation, New York, NY
Amerada Hess Corporation, New York, NY
Continental Grain Corporation, New York, NY
Paine Weber, New York, NY
McKinsey & Company, Cleveland, OH
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2003 James Kalm, N. U. ARTS
2000 James Kalm. N. U. ARTS
1986 Glueck, Grace. New York TImes
1985 Leites, Ed. Art in America
1977 Wahl, Kenneth. “On Abstract Literalist Works,” Arts Magazine
Cavaliere, Barbara.Arts Magazine, February 1977
Bourbon, David. The Village Voice, December 6
1975 Lorber, Richard. Arts Magazine, Feb
Alloway, Lawrence. The Nation, December 6
Martin, Jean-Hubert. “William Fares: La Peinture S’ Ouvre,” Art Press, January
Dreiss, Jospeh. Arts Magazine, Ma
1974 Rose, Barbara. “More Art Than Money,” Vogue Magazine, Dec
Moser, Charolotte. “Artists Emphasize Form,” Houston Chronicle, Sep
1972 Bowles, Jerry. “Artists Leave Big Sur for Big Apple,” Staten Island, Advance, June 2
Albright, Thomas. “Unexpected Art Surprises,” San Francisco Chronicle, October 18