Roseline delisle biography channel
| For over a decade, Roseline Delisle (1952-2003) dreamed of making large-scale ceramic sculpture. She first realized her goal in an exhibition of six figurative sculptures in the fall of 1996. Her recent work presents a vision of purity and perfection, a world of balance and symmetry. Their stability and strength complement the precision of the slender, seemingly fragile figures. Bold and graphic, the tall and totemic sculptures are deeply rooted in early twentieth century abstraction. Delisles ability to marry these polarities is her triumph. Although most of her early work was made in the demanding medium of fired porcelain, Delisle turned to an earthenware clay body to realize her ambitious figurative pieces. The years of experience with porcelain proved valuable, as she developed a means of stacking sections of interlocking cylinders to create larger forms. The first six sculptures were made of eight, ten or eleven different elements, fused together in a nearly seamless line. With foot, body, waist and head, these hollow vessels have a human presence. The artist is in control of her elementsline, form, volume and coloryet is able to find a fertile ground for exploration. Many viewers and writers have noted Roselines success in the unification of opposites. It is true that her vertical forms are striped with horizontal bands, the sharp profiles are softened by a smooth, rich surface, and the nearly mechanical precision is offset by their obvious figurative references. Technical and formal concerns are one means of access; another is the presence and historical awareness in these new large works. Delisle cites as seminal influences the Suprematist drawings of Malevich, the Constructivist theatre and ballet designs of Oskar Schlemmer, and the line drawings of Picasso. Her primary influences in the world of ceramics have been Lucie Rie (delicacy of form, use of line) and John Mason (monumentality, minimalism). Despite her awareness of these historical sources and her relentless reductivist sensibility, Roseline allows some interplay between intellect and intuition. Recently the artist has begun to group her figures together in pairs and small families. A pair of sculptures, side by side, is quickly recognized as a couple. Delisle delights in pointing out the anatomical signifiersfemale and maleand in emphasizing the interplay of negative space between the two. When she adds a third, smaller figure, the family resembles her ownmother, father and daughter. Thus, her abstracted figures become immediate and personal. |
Education 1969-73 Institute of the Applied Arts, Montreal, Canada Museum Collections Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum, Seto, Japan Arizona State University Museum, Tempe, Arizona Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull, Québec, Canada Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, Racine, Wisconsin Cincinnati Museum of Arts, Cincinnati, Ohio Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan Everson Museum of Arts, Syracuse, New York Getty Center for the History of Art and Humanities, Brentwood, California Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Montréal, Canada Musée des Beaux Arts, Montréal, Canada Musée du Québec, Québec, Canada Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan Selected Solo Exhibitions 2014 Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, California 2000 John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, California 1999 Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, California 1996 Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, California 1994 Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles, California John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, California 1993 Garth Clark Gallery, New York Lemberg Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan 1992 John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, California 1991 Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo, Japan (with the Canadian Embassy, as part of Great Canada 91) Garth Clark Gallery, New York 1990 Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles, California 1989 John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, California Barbara Silverberg Gallery, Montréal, Canada Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, Santa Monica, California 1988 Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles, California Garth Clark Gallery, New York Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo, Japan 1987 Garth Clark Gallery, New York Dorothy Weiss Gallery, San Francisco, California 1986 Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles, California Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, California Barbara Silverberg Gallery, Montréal, Canada 1985 Dorothy Weiss Gallery, San Francisco, California 1983 Noir et Blanc, Guilde Canadienne des Métiers dArt, Montréal, Canada |