Robert Brodesky has been making his art since his 20s when as a younger man he was convinced that was what he should do. He grew up in Brooklyn New York and his large figures drawn with chalk and painted with acrylic are like saints from urban sidewalks. He works from an inner memory, no models, just the flow of life well observed and cherished. The title of his recently completed solo show, “What Remains Unsaid,” implies that these images are snapshots of imagined narratives, where the couples or individuals have history and may or may not have a future.”
I was spellbound by their scale, audacity, confidence and beauty when I entered the gallery at the James Library & Center for the Arts, its formal room with Greek scroll ornament wallpaper somber gray walls and generous windows the perfect space for Brodesky’s exhibit or recent works that are heroic, truthful and loaded with implication.
The heavy black outlines remind me of Rouault and the use of chalk (a brand from one company in the Midwest) on the final surface gives an aura of light pouring through like stained glass windows. When we talked Brodesky described his process as evolving, the initial sketch may hint at the final version, but there are many layers, decisions, like a highly edited story, words the reader will never see.
The greyed-out couple in “He Doesn’t Make It Easy” have only a slight shimmer of pink, a streak of orange and her fading blonde, yellow hair — they could be ill at ease or resolving their disconnect. The ambiguity is playwright worthy. The curator, Elizabeth Helfer, hung a trio of works above the grand piano in a room used for concerts. The juxtaposition of “Man Oh Cherry,” “Woman Alive” and “Urban Turban” is heart-stopping beautiful as a group and each as a tour de force image.
(Brodesky’s work can now be seen in the Artypants-presented group show, “double life,” through May 30 at the Frame Center, 152 Rockland Rd., Hanover, Massachusetts. See more of Brodesky’s work at rpbrodeskyart.com.)