In the Eyes of the Beholder
Tucked away in the newly opened upper-story gallery space of the Picked Art Centre in Beijing, Susan Melikian Steinsieck’s exhibition of paintings was a pure revelation. The display itself seemed rather hurried and shoddily put up. However under a closer inspection of the individual paintings, the omnipresence of a certain expansiveness, inherent of any "good" work of art, that which initiates the process of communications between art and its connoisseur, was immediately recognizable.
I am wholly aware that Steinsieck’s work is immensely different, both stylistically as well as in matters of subject, from the work of the German artist of the Weimar period, Kathe Kollwitz. But after an initial glance at some of Steinsieck’s paintings, somehow, I made an instant connection between the two of them. It probably had something to do with the deliberate use of etching in the paintings. "My work is not pure art" Kollwitz once wrote, "Nevertheless, it is art. Every artist works in his own vein. I want my art to serve a purpose; I want it to have an impact in this day and age, when people are so desperate and in need of help."
Drawing her inspirations from the simplest of quotidian objectsa lonely seashell, a host of flowers, a bird on a wire, a patch of plants, a gathering of insects– Steinsieck’s paintings are a fecund celebration of nature and life. Steinsieck, a veteran jazz vocalist (associated in the past, with jazz maestros such as Benny Goodman and Scott Hamilton), in her paintings, transcends boundaries with virtuoso ease and authentic confidence. A certain free-flowing element evident in Steinsiek’s work reminded me of John Coltrane’s rendition of "Raindrops on Roses"–the catchiest of tunes with the simplest of lyrics, which gets transformed into a musical chef d’oeuvre of the profoundest significance.
Just like the multilayered plot bolsters a narrative, similarly the most striking aspect of Steinsieck’s paintings seems to lie in their many layers. One marvels at the the exquisite care that has gone into the creation of every single one of them. The preliminary sketching, the delivering of the pigment or the subsequent etching of pinstripe contours on to them:all of it resides in perfect harmony within these paintings. The agglomeration of different colors, bold and fluent brushstrokes and the frequent punctuations with techniques in scratching and scraping, give the paintings a certain iridescence which is fascinating.
I at once had my own set of favorites. One was in black and white called, On the Dark Side Looking In. And among the ones in color, the most memorable was one from the "St. Lucia" series.The vivid contrast of black and orange and a white blossom etched in the black, are typical of Steinsieck’s style.
In conclusion, I will borrow from Ippy and Neil Patterson, "Melikian’s art affects you from within. Lines and shapes one cannot always completely decipher evoke a memory, the mystery of a feeling, a dream, a state of mind, fragmentary, only vaguely conscious…These telling lines can only be made by an eye that loves the form it sees and a hand that can follow the eye."
