目前在紐約Cheim & Read展出的「Christopher Isherwood; Last Drawings」。顧名思義就是展出Christopher Isherwood生前最後幾尊畫像。而拿起筆能夠如此近距離接觸死亡的畫家，就是以肖像起家的Don Bachardy。Don Bachardy和Christopher Isherwood是一對同志戀人，不過也有人說他們只是spend rest of their lives together（共度餘生）。在21世紀的現在，同志之戀已非罕見。可是Chirs and Don這對戀人，卻是在1953年的情人節那天，在Santa Monica的沙灘上遇見彼此，從那天起他們就一起度過彼此的每一天。當時Chirs已經48歲（August 26, 1904 – January 4, 1986），而Don僅是18歲（May 18, 1934）的少年。甚至在回憶錄似的紀錄片「Chris & Don: A Love Story」中，Don回憶自己可能才16歲。就不難猜測這段相差三十歲之多的戀情，是多麼令人受矚目的。
雖然中間有質疑、外遇、分離，甚至Don自己認為自己只是在Chris眼皮底下的影子，沒有藝術創作空間，離開後才發覺對方的重要。這段戀情甚至曝曬在好萊塢名人間，都沒有切斷他們兩人的情誼，一直到Chris離開人世。Chris是一位作家、小說家，有許多著作甚至是由chris口述，Don執筆完成的。
在Cheim & Read展出的就是Chris在Don最後幾個月因病纏身、臥病在床的畫作。面對愛人的痛苦、死亡、掙扎，Don選擇和他用藝術一起經驗死亡。展出作品中最後幾幅甚至是在Chris嚥下最後一口氣的創作。
媒材使用則是極好的日本筆刷與黑色壓克力顏料，並選用紙張大小不一的水彩紙作畫。不能去紐約的可以在網站上一覽畫作，即使透過螢幕，還是可以深刻感受到那死亡的臨迫。
公關稿
DON BACHARDY
CHRISTOPHER ISHERWOOD;
LAST DRAWINGS
Opening Tuesday 6 January from 6 to 8 pm.
Exhibition continues through 7 February 2009.
Cheim & Read is pleased to announce an exhibition of drawings by Los Angeles painter Don Bachardy. The show intimately documents the last six months of esteemed writer Christopher Isherwood’s life. Barchardy’s long-time partner, Isherwood died of prostate cancer in 1986.
Bachardy is well-known for portraits of artists, musicians. writers and Hollywood notables including Tennessee Williams, Igor Stravinsky, Joan Didion, Anais Nin, Dorothy Parker, Lynda Benglis, David Hockney and Aldous Huxley among many others. His portraits are intentionally completed in one sitting, so as not to lose the moment’s intensity. The focus and sensitivity with which Bachardy works, both in drawing and painting, captures the essence of his sitter with little extraneous information—this reductive approach echoed the work of David Hockney, and anticipated the finely lined, jewel-like portraits of Elizabeth Peyton.
Untitled III, 2 January 1986
acrylic on paper, 29 7/8 x 22 1/2 in, 75.9 x 57.2 cm
In Bachardy’s drawings of Isherwood’s last moments, the energy between artist and subject is palpable and poignant. The two men met in Santa Monica and began their relationship in 1952, when Bachardy was eighteen and Isherwood forty-eight. Age difference was only one of many hurdles for the openly gay couple, but the longevity of their partnership, which lasted over 30 years, is testimony to their commitment. Undeterred by the social prejudices of the 1950s and 60s, prevalent even among friends in Hollywood, the couple maintained a complex, romantic relationship of enviable dedication. Isherwood inevitably played a paternal role to the much-younger Bachardy, encouraging and supporting his artistic ambitions (he began making portraits in his teens).
As Isherwood’s cancer progressed, Bachardy made almost daily drawings of his partner’s journey, an attempt to make even death a process the two could experience together. The resulting portraits are witness to a mind and body in transition. As Isherwood’s illness advanced, the drawings changed accordingly—it was more difficult for Isherwood to cooperate with the sittings, and the time frame in which to make them rapidly decreased. As death neared, the drawings became sketchier and unmediated—Bachardy would sometimes do up to nine or ten images a day.
Bachardy used large-format watercolor paper of varying sizes, most measuring approximately 40 x 32 inches, allowing for life-size compositions while retaining a tender intimacy with his subject. Drawing mostly with well-used Japanese brushes and black acrylic paint, Bachardy controlled the consistency of opacity and tone, adding water for more transparent lines and washes. Some images are finely nuanced and detailed, while others are quick renderings of the shadows and forms in Isherwood’s progressively gaunt face. The last portraits in the series were made after Isherwood’s final breaths on January 4, 1986.
A documentary film about the couple, “Chris and Don: A Love Story” by Guido Santi and Tina Mascara, was released in July 2008.
Cheim & Read
(212) 242-7727
547 W 25th St,
New York, NY 10001+5501
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