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Painting
is a form of alchemy, materials of little consequence, when acted
upon correctly, change into something much more than themselves;
a silk purse from a sow’s ear. I have been painting for forty
years trying to work this magic. When any mark is put on paper or
canvas we see that mark as existing in front of the surface, accepting
this, we suspend our disbelief and enter into a different reality,
as we do when we hear; "Once upon a time…", or "A
man walked into a bar…". There are many aspects. There
is illusion; making two-dimensional what is three-dimensional, a
bottle, a figure, a landscape. There is also the task of trying
to make visible what is invisible, and entasis.
No artist works in a vacuum. Art is a language that we learn like
speech and when we can speak we say what we think. My first language
of art was Abstract Expressionism. I was attracted to the drama
and excitement of it, and then came to believe that just the act
of painting was subject matter enough. I felt through abstraction,
gestural, or geometric, we were redefining the language of art to
a purer and more essential form, discarding unnecessary, superfluous
elements such as representation and illusion. Eventually I began
searching for symbols, potent Jungian archetypes; cross/phallus,
tomb/vagina that would express the powerful dichotomy I felt between
the spiritual and the profane. I compared myself to the priest or
shaman, trying to decode or reinvent pan cultural icons.
I think my Catholic childhood gave me a fright about sex and even
though I became a father at twenty-one I used painting for many
years to address this complex issue. I have thought that the dichotomy
between the sacred and the profane is a perpetual struggle and our
spirituality can only be perceived by the same physicality that
would tarnish it. Even though there are no explicit images, my work
has often been described as having a sexual content. I think the
work of the past several years to be more about sensuality.
For the past ten years I have been drawn to Italian painting, the
early Renaissance frescos of Giotto and Fra Angelico in particular
but also the fragments and paintings from Pompeii. Fra Angelico
was a priest who believed in the Beatific Vision and he was an artist
who looked at the world around him as a real place. He married these
two realities together into a quiet classical space. I see in the
Pompeian House of Mysteries, that same Mediterranean calm and classical
ideal, clothed in a pagan rite.
1945 Born in Washington, D.C.
1990 - present Teacher, Borough of Manhattan Community College,
New York,NY
1981 - present Teacher, Parsons School of Design, New York, NY
1987 Lecturer & panelist, Theodore Roethke Arts Festival, Lafeyette
College, Easton, PA
Visiting Artist, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
Education
1968 Advanced Year Painting Program, School of Visual Arts, New
York, NY
1967 B.F.A., Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond VA
Awards/Grants/Fellowships
1991 Parson's Faculty Development Award, Parsons School of Design,
New York, NY
1987 Visiting Artist, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
Detwiller Artist Award, Lafayette College, Easton, PA (catalogue)
1986 Artist in Residency, Garner Tullis Workshop, Santa Barbara,
CA
1982 CAPS Grant for painting
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2001 Sears Peyton, New York, NY; Linda Schwartz Gallery, Cincinnati,
OH
1999 Davis and Hall, Hudson, NY
1998 Tobey Fine Arts, New York, NY; Linda Schwartz Gallery, Lexington,
KY; Gwenda Jay Addington, Chicago, IL
1997 Tobey Fine Arts, New York, NY
1992 Paintings and Monotypes, Malmgran Gallery, Gotenberg, Sweden
1990 Jessica Berwind Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
1989 John Davis Gallery, New York, NY
1987 John Davis Gallery, New York, NY; The Detwiller Artist Award,
Lafayette College, Easton, PA (catalogue); Foster Hall Gallery,
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
1986 Oscarsson Siegeltuch Gallery, New York, NY
1984 Susan Montezinos Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
1983 Joseph Haske, Recent Paintings, Oscarsson Hood Gallery, New
York, NY
1982 Oscarsson Hood Gallery, New York, NY; John Davis Gallery, Akron,
OH
Selected Group Exhibitions
2002 Selections from Vandeb Editions, The Space, New York, NY; Whitney
Art Works, Greenport, NY; Gallery Artists, Circa Gallery, Minneapolis,
MN; Bryant Street Gallery, Palo Alto, CA; Albright Knox Museum,
Buffalo, NY
1999 Botanica, Tweed Museum of Art, Duluth, MN, (traveling through
2001)
1997 Abstraction Index, Condeso/Lawler Gallery, New York, NY; Art
Resources, New York, NY; Marsha Wood Gallery, Atlanta, GA; Three
Again, Art in Construction Showroom, New York, NY
1996 A Gift of Vision: The William A. And Susan S. Small Collection,
Tuscon Museum of Art, Tuscon, AZ; The Salon Show, Room, New York,
NY; Four Artists, Andrea Pintch, Munich, Germany; Gallery Artists,
Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO; Albright Knox Museum, Buffalo, NY
York Collection, Albright Knox Museum, Buffalo, NY (traveling through1997)
1995 Joseph Haske and Ed Masler, Linda Schwartz Gallery, Lexington,KY;
New Work, Art in Construction Showroom, New York, NY; Off Hand,
E.S.
Vandam Gallery, New York, NY; Creative Collecting, Smith College
Museum, Northampton, MA
1994 East / West, Cross Cultural Influences in Painting, E.S. Vandam
Gallery, New York, NY; Abstract Painting, E.S. Vandam Gallery, New
York, NY
1993 Painting, Helander Gallery, New York, NY; A to Z, 0 to 9, E.S.
Vandam Gallery, New York, NY; Abstract Painting, Willow Gallery,
New York, NY
1992 Group Exhibition, The Galbreath Gallery, Lexington, KY
1991 Stockholm Art Fair, Stockholm, Sweden; 3 Painters, The Galbreath
Gallery, Lexington, KY
1990 Malgram Gallery, Gotenberg, Sweden; Sylvia Schmidt Gallery,
New Orleans, LA
1989 25th Art on Paper Exhibition, Weatherspoon Art Gallery, University
of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC
1988 24th Art on Paper Exhibition, Weatherspoon Art Gallery, University
of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC; Jessica Berwind
Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; John Davis Gallery, New York, NY
1987 Gallery Artists, John Davis Gallery, New York, NY; Summer Group,
John Davis Gallery, New York, NY; Gallery Artists, Virginnia Miller
Gallery, Miami, FL
1986 New Abstract Painting: Five New York Artists, Angles Gallery,
Santa Monica, CA
1985 Abstract Issues, Oscarsson Hood Gallery; Tibor de Nagy Gallery;
Sherry French Gallery
1984 Small Works: New Abstract Paintings, Lafayette College &
Muhlenberg College, Easton & Allentown, PA
1983 Summer Group Exhibition, Osscarsson Hood Gallery, New York,
NY
1982 John Davis Gallery, Akron, OH
1981 Small Works Competition, Washington Square East Galleries,
New
York University, New York, NY; The New Spiritualism, Storrs, Robert
Hull Fleming Museum, The University of Vermont (catalogue)
1980 Drawings, Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, NY; Preview
1980-1981, Osscarsson Hood Gallery, New York, NY
1973 New Talent, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, NY
1972 Biennial, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
1971 Annual, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Selected Public Collections
• American Telephone & Telegraph, New York, NY
• Arthur Anderson & Company, Chicago, IL
• Best Products, VA
• Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, NY
• Chemical Bank, New York, NY
• Citicorp, New York, NY
• E.F. Hutton, New York, NY
• General Electric, New York, NY
• Honolulu Museum, Honolulu, HI
• Rutgers Archives for Print Making, New Brunswick, NJ
• Santa Barbara Community College, Santa Barbara, CA
• Southwest Banking Corporation, Los Angeles, CA
• Smith College, Northampton, MA
• Thorpe, Reed, and Armstrong, PA
• Tuscon Museum of Art, Tuscon, AZ
• University of Arizona Museum of Art,Tuscon, AZ
• Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
• Weatherspoon Museum, Greensboro, NC
• Wichita Museum, Wichita, KS
Selected Bibliography
"Joseph Haske - Abstract Paintings," Jeanette Fintz, Register-Star,
Hudson, NY, December 3, 1999.
"Acrylics Lighten the Weight of Winter," Mike Holdren,
Lexington Herald-Leader, Lexington, KY, Sunday, March 15, 1998.
"Three Painters, a Lesson in the Abstract," Diana Heyne,
Lexington Herald-Leader, Lexington, KY, Sunday, June 30, 1991.
Three Painters," Garland W. Black, Dialogue Magazine, Sept-Oct,
1991, reproduction.
"Review", Edward J. Sozanski, Thursday, February 8, 1990,
reproduction.
"Joseph Haske", Ruth Bass, Artnews, Summer 1989, p.169,
reproduction.
"Joseph Haske/John Davis Gallery", Timothy Cohrs, Artnews,
March 1998, p.200, reproduction.
"Purgatory's Way", Steven Henry Madoff, Arts Magazine,
March 1987, reproduction.
"New Abstraction", Ronny Cohen, The Print Collectors Newsletter,
Vol.XVIII, No. 1, March-April 1987, reproduction.
"Is There Life After Death?: The Recent Paintings of Joseph
Haske," Steven Henry Madoff, ARTS Magazine, February 1984,
reproduction.
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