Note
Notes: Text from Hoboken Historical Museum Newsletter, Nov.-Dec. 2007.
Frank Hanavan:
Part of the Landscape
This summer, painter Frank Hanavan and his easel have
been nearly as ubiquitous as the Mr. Softee ice cream truck
around the neighborhoods of Hoboken. This Jersey City based
artist usually divides his time between Hudson County
and New York City, but he spent the bulk of his summer painting
scenes of Hoboken for his second show at the Hoboken
Historical Museum in four years.
In the practice of plein air artists, Hanavan prefers to paint
outdoors, in front of—almost a part of—the landscapes he’s
been fascinated by for almost two decades. Describing his
style as representational realism, his acrylic canvases evoke
both the Impressionists’ fascination with the interplay of light
and shadow as well as the Photorealists’ ability to capture a
scene’s details, especially the reflections on the glass and
metal surfaces in an urban setting.
Nearly two dozen of the artist’s latest paintings will be on
display at the Hoboken Historical Museum in an exhibit entitled
Frank Hanavan: Part of the Landscape, in the Upper
Gallery. The exhibit opens with a reception on Sunday,
November 11, from 2 – 5 p.m. and will remain on view
through December 23.
Hanavan’s paintings are prominently displayed in many
businesses and homes around Hoboken, which enables his
fans to see how his work has evolved since the Buffalo native
landed in Hoboken in 1990. The Museum used a dozen as
illustrations in its 2005 calendar, and prints of his work were
a popular gift for large donors that year.
A lot of the new paintings in this exhibition, Hanavan
says, “are on broadly rectangular canvases, almost a cinematic
aspect ratio. This reflects my changing sensibilities about
how to best describe a landscape subject.”
He modestly gives more credit to Hoboken’s unique character
than he does to his own talent. “I try to paint the subject
just as it appears and in no way do I try to alter the appearance
of the subject,” he says, explaining representational realism.
“If the subject looks good in the painting, it is mostly due to
the fact that the subject already looked good in real life.”
A fan of Hoboken’s sidewalk culture, Hanavan says, “it’s
a friendlier vibe than you have in New York. I’ve gotten to
know scores of Hobokenites through painting in various
Hoboken locales over and over through the years.”
Original or Copy: Digital copy
Status: OK
Status By: dw
Status Date: 2009-06-23
