BY LINDA DeNICOLA
Staff Writer
Untitled Arthur “Art” Newman is living up to his name. He is an artist who paints large abstractions that are usually grounded in a figurative base. And you could say that he is a new man, because 10 years ago he reinvented himself as an artist.
A Long Branch resident, his most recent show has been at the Art Alliance in Red Bank. Titled “The Last 10 Years” it opened on Aug. 20 and closes tomorrow. It includes 19 paintings, most of them large enough to fill the walls of the small gallery.
Newman considers the last decade to be when he began to focus on art. Before that, he was an educator. He has a master’s degree in special education from the Bank Street College in New York City and a doctorate from Rutgers University School of Education in New Brunswick. He was the first director of CPC (Children’s Psychiatric Center) and worked in that position for 11 years before starting an alternative school for children and adolescents who are unable to function in mainstream schools. Called the Oakwood School, it is on Hance Avenue in Tinton Falls.
Art Newman with “Three Models” “I still work there half time. I guess I am semiretired,” he said.
“Woman” Newman said he has not had any formal training in art, but until he was 30 years old, he was a carpenter and set designer for summer stock theaters. “Over the years, I did an occasional painting, but for the most part, I started painting 10 years ago,” he said.
He has been in a number of shows and won a first-place prize at Brookdale Community College’s annual show in the early 1990s.
Newman has lived for the past 40 years on the Jersey Shore, but none of his paintings are seascapes. He does not paint the outdoors. He is not a plein-air painter, but a “foul weather painter,” he quips.
“Askew” “In the winter, I paint indoors, but in the nicer weather I play golf and tennis,” he said.
Everything that he paints comes from his imagination, and he needs large canvases to contain the images. He does not use photographs or models because he is an astute observer of people and their gestures.
In recent years, his style has evolved from figurative to abstract with figures seemingly embedded. Sometimes you have to look closely to see the figure, or figures, in his softly glazed abstractions. His washes are reminiscent of watercolors. In fact, he works like a watercolorist, completing a painting in one session.
“Blue Tank” The interplay of forms, shades and figures creates a psychological tension that is sensual and intriguing.
“I guess I am interested in the human condition of conflict and raw emotion. I’m interested in creating multiple meanings,” he explained.
One of his largest paintings, 50 inches by 80 inches, is called “Refractions.” It looks abstract, but there are two out-of-focus figures.
“Incubus” “They are seen through bottled glass,” he said.
In another large painting, a woman is viewed close-up, walking away from what could be a pale cityscape. The viewer is left wondering about the meaning of the scene.
Newman said the two artists he admires most are the Swiss surrealist Alberto Giacometti and the Italian painter Amodeo Modigliani.
But Newman doesn’t imitate either of them. His style is his own and reflects his sympathy for, and observations on, the human condition.