Jefferson Hayman | New Amsterdam
Exhibition opening reception with the artist
Thursday, November 14th, 6pm - 9pm
Jefferson Hayman: New Amsterdam
The 17th-century Dutch trading port New Amsterdam was originally settled on the southern tip of present-day Manhattan, and became internationally known for its vibrant combination of Old World tradition and New World innovation. Given the colony’s affinity for linking past and present aspects of Amsterdam and New York, New Amsterdam is a felicitous title for this presentation of new work by artist Jefferson Hayman.
Over the past twenty years, Hayman has utilized his expertise in historic photographic techniques to explore themes such as memory, nostalgia, and common symbols. In particular, the rich and varied tonality of his imagery is informed by early photographic processes, and his work invites viewers into an alluring portal of subjects and places that conjure the mystique and poetic expression of analog film. Hayman’s recent work has taken a new direction by also referencing traditional painting styles, and his still lifes in particular are influenced by 17th-century Dutch paintings. This inspiration is palpable in the luminous work Still Life with Lemons, in which a group of lemons on a table glow from a diffused golden light that Dutch old master painters favored using on their subjects as well. Though Hayman's work is imbued with references to the past, he is a 21st-century artist with a contemporary eye, and his recent work captures his subjects using digital processes with a directness and immediacy that is unmistakably rooted in the present.
Another notable characteristic of Hayman’s work is his use of handcrafted or vintage one-of-a-kind frames to make each work of art an individual art-object, a practice he has employed throughout his career. Dutch painters shared this ideology that frames are an important part of viewing a work of art, and artists such as Johannes Vermeer and Rembrandt van Rijn were fond of using wooden frames in earthy, dark tones for their paintings. Many of the early, rippled frames from this era were either made of ebony wood or wood that had been painted black to mimic ebony; for this current exhibition, Hayman has collaborated with framemaker Jerry Kurian to create handcrafted frames in the Dutch Ripple-style to adorn his still life works.
One noteworthy piece of New Amsterdam's history is that our modern-day tradition of exchanging winter holiday gifts can be traced back to the settlement itself. Prior to the port’s establishment, the 17th-century Puritan communities in New York mostly did not celebrate Christmas because it was deemed a somber holiday, but after the Dutch arrived, their holiday gift-giving traditions spread throughout the area and became popular with American families over time. Historically, the Dutch art market teemed with the creation and exchange of objects including artworks known as fijnschilders, a term that was often used to describe works sought out by collectors that were intimate in scale (some fijnschilder painters worked in a scale which rarely exceeded fifteen inches) with exquisite technique and precise attention to detail. Given that Hayman’s work has long been associated with the same qualities prized by fijnschilder collectors, the location and timing of this exhibition is particularly auspicious, as it gives art lovers of today the opportunity to acquire Hayman’s work in the same fashion of beloved Dutch holiday and market traditions which flourished in the southern neighborhoods of New York centuries ago.
- Alexandra Tagami Vargo, NYC 2019
Hayman’s work is found in numerous private and public collections, notably The Museum of Modern Art Special Collections Library, The Boston Athenaeum, The New York Public Library, the collection of Sir Elton John, and the collection of Robert DeNiro, amongst many others.
In 2015 he was awarded the prestigious Pollock Krasner grant.
Hayman lives and works in Nyack, New York, a small historic village minutes from the heart of Manhattan.
thumbnail image: Still Life with Oranges, 6 3/8” x 13 5/8”
Sneak preview of select exhibition images in here, check back for updates and additional images
