Donald Nield: American Surrealist January 10 - February 9, 2022
Arctic Masque, 1971, oil on canvas, 40 x 28 inches
Artist's Talk
Tuesday, January 18, 5:30pm
About The Exhibition
Donald Nield's painting is characterized by fantastical settings, personal symbols, and humorous juxtapositions drawn from art references, history, and popular culture. A self-identified surrealist painter, Nield (1924-1984) was born in Shanghai and spent his childhood in the UK, Canada, and China before immigrating to the United States with his family in 1933. Having studied anatomy, perspective, and life drawing in the 1950s, Nield came to reject contemporary abstract art in favor of traditional figurative painting. "I want to express the existence of a world of the spirit with the symbols and forms of classical culture," he said. By 1967, he had developed a visual vocabulary that merged Old Master painting, surrealism, and Pop Art - a sampling that touched upon multiple avant-garde movements while simultaneously maintaining a distance from the central art historical narratives of mid-century modernism in the United States. This exhibition features selections from Nield's extensive oeuvre, which is now in a private collection.