NEW
YORK, NY.- Michael Werner Gallery presents an exhibition of
paintings by Swiss artist Félix Vallotton (Lausanne, 1865 – Paris,
1925). The exhibition features portraits of women, primarily nudes, and
is the first gallery exhibition in New York devoted to the artist’s paintings.
Félix Vallotton’s paintings do not give pleasure easily. In portraiture he is
not a flashy virtuoso and his nudes are not “sexy”, at least not in any typical
fashion. His paint handling is careful and deliberate; his palette, subdued and
a little flat; his surfaces, slow and at times somewhat dry. His intense,
unforgiving attention to detail lends a palpable realism to the paintings.
Enlivened by a thinly veiled eroticism, his subtly voyeuristic scenes leave one
feeling more than a little uncomfortable. Paintings of Félix Vallotton is on
view from 4 February to 10 April 2010.