Photorealism
- Kennedy Motorcade
- Sisters of the Immaculate Conception
- Farb Family Portrait
- Macarena of Miracles
- Crayola
- Self-Portrait
- Buddha
- World War II
- Marilyn
- We Are All Light and Energy
Farb Family Portrait. 1969-70.
Oil on cavas, 40x60" - Rose Art Museum
| Farb Family Portrait was a commissioned work by Oriole Farb
in 1969. The family posed for Flack’s camera, which would later become
a slide to work up the portrait. This work moved Flack into Photorealism.
She developed a technique of taking a slide of the subject, then projecting
the developed slide onto a canvas, then painting over the project image.
This process eliminated the part of working which made Flack impatient:
the drawing. Instead she was able to go straight to painting, and eventually
eliminate the need for line at all, giving her a more direct contact with
the canvas. Further moves this away from photography by adding the frame,
and giving her name prominence on the brass plate (it states the title,
date, and the artist's name) (Gouma-Peterson 60).
Each figure in this work is an individual: The older boy projects intelligence; his father commands the center of the canvas; the younger son, with his camera and finger posed on the shutter, almost mocks Flack; Oriole, the only woman in the work stands bathed in the most light, tall and firm. Behind themes a painting of Buddha, reminding us of spirituality, and Flack’s own yearning for calming and transcendent presence in her life (Gouma-Peterson 60-61). This work seems very intimate to me. It is easy to get a sense of each subject from their facial expressions, stance, and even clothing. They also have their imperfections as well as their beauty, adding to their depicted personalities. |