BmoreArt

Drawing undergirds every piece in this show, including the sublimely fluid, light-drenched gouache and watercolor paintings. Nemett’s sketchbooks—or “drawing books,” as he often calls them—are unlike those of most other representational artists. Rather than a place to work out ideas for paintings, although they do sometimes serve that purpose, these books are the vehicle for Nemett’s insatiable need to draw.

In them you will find everything from the briefest gestural sketches to fully-realized studies, some of them composites, sustained over a span of days. You will also find, in many of the works, writing in Nemett’s scrawled hand. It is safe to say that when he is not drawing, he is writing—or reading. He has published both a coming-of-age novel and a profusely illustrated textbook for art students and often contributes to BmoreArt as a writer and critic.

Take, for example, this excerpt from the tender text Nemett has composed to flesh out words he inscribed into the drawing, “Landscape with Trees, Monuments and Shelters.”

For us, the cemetery was an arboretum, a duck pond, a hike, a playground, a library, more about trim reading than grim reaping. We did, however, tell tales about under-earth constellations of soulful strangers which couldn’t possibly be true. 

Oak leaves buried tree feet and crunched under ours as we strolled by groves of bones. A grand, glorious copper beech tree spread its arms. Our kids claimed that its shadow was ‘bigger than sky.’ Into this scroll drawing, I also drew a couple of shelters big enough to hold bigger-than-sky family memories, which don’t take up as much room as the celestial stories we made up. I drew the beech tree several times before I didn’t have the stomach (or heart) to draw it after it became a stump.

Whether in graphite, ink wash, or ballpoint pen, the procession of images literally unfolds in a series of accordion-paged books: forests, rooftops, mountains, farmland, rivers, clouds, birds, monkeys, skulls, transcriptions of master paintings, and sculpture. There are also the abundant faces of family, friends, and students. Nemett, 77, taught thousands of drawing and painting students in his 50-year career at Maryland Institute College of Art. Sometimes the likeness appears and sometimes it doesn’t. Nemett seems unfazed by this. He knows that in fifty years, it won’t matter.

While you will come across the occasional performing musician or athlete, most often it’s the Beckett-like world of waiting that takes center stage. No artist since Hopper has captured the claustrophobic, crushing weight of boredom as perfectly as Nemett does in his drawing of a jury pool holding room.

In their aggregate, these sketchbooks constitute a maximalist document of Nemett’s life. And a sizable chunk of his life has been devoted to travel. So we see people reading in train stations, sleeping in airports and, of course, talking on the phone everywhere. For Nemett, there is no such thing as downtime. Even in museums, he is as likely to draw other visitors in their bulky winter coats or summer t-shirts and shorts, or the inert figure of a snoozing guard, as he is the masterpieces on the walls.

At a moment in our history when most folks are content to snap a photo with a cell phone camera, Nemett digs in to take a long, hard look. (For the record, the artist does not use a cell phone and has never sent a text.)

Whether recording a breathtaking Umbrian panorama or the fleshy ear of the guy asleep next to him on a plane, what connects all of these images is the depth of Nemett’s attention and compassion, and the rich, joyous marks with which he enables us to see as he does. It was Degas, after all, who famously said, “Drawing is not what one sees, but what one can make others see.”

Arting Gallery presents BARRY NEMETT: RHYTHMS & STRIPS IN RETROSPECT, NOV 15 – DEC 27, 2024.

The 100-page book, published by Arting Gallery, that accompanies the show will be first released at this time.

Barry Nemett is Professor Emeritus at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). He has exhibited his powerful, unforgettable works in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States, China, Japan, Africa, France, and Italy. After receiving a BFA from Pratt Institute and his MFA from Yale University, he was professor for 50 years at Maryland Institute College of Art where he was Chair of the Painting Department from 1990 -2016.

The exhibit will run from November 15 – December 27, 2024. In addition to the opening, the gallery will be open to the public: Saturday, November 16, 3 – 5pm; Friday, December 6, 2 – 4pm; Thursday, December 12, 2 – 4pm; and otherwise by appointment to [email protected].