George Copeland Ault
Wow, this Ault character lived a hard life. Opening up Wiki to learn about him and the first paragraph contains: ”Ault became alcoholic during the 1920s, after the death of his mother in a mental institution. Each of his three brothers died by suicide, two after the loss of the family fortune in the 1929 stock market crash.” Yikes.
It looks like Ault had some initial success as an artist, but he alienated galleries with his alcoholism, moved to Woodstock, and eventually killed himself. Four brothers, all of whom killed themselves. Horrible.
What we are left with are some bleak pictures. There are some that I love like the one below “Hoboken Factory“ 1932.
Since this blog is my opportunity to talk about what I like and don’t like about art, I’ll jump in and say why I like this piece so much.
Composition: Its flat. Not great.
Colors: I’m a big fan. Love the blue sky and windows and the different quality of light from the street lamp.
Concept: This is where the piece works. I use that term in a made up way. I’m trying to describe the intention behind the work. I think the intention only succeeds if it actually infuses the artwork (Jerry Saltz has a line he uses over and over again where he went to a gallery, sees pictures of clouds and the dealer says “Remarkable statement on George Floyd” and Saltz says, these are clouds…'“… need to write this better.
What I read into this is despair. Its a beautiful despair. Its representational, but not in a way that matters. I am not sure, but I don’t think the building matters at all here. Its the place you walk by if you go for a long solo walk in the industrial areas of a city. There is a despair in that kind of local as well. …. more to come…
More coming…
Current Verdict on Ault:
come back soon!