A Solo Exhibit of Robert Greene's Latest Works Opens at the Robert Miller Gallery.

Since I began this blog in 2007, one of the continually most popular posts has been that of a beautiful photography book featuring the sex appeal of hirsute males; Hairy, by Robert Greene.



What may surprise some of you is that photography is merely a one of the talents of artist Robert Greene whose painted works are critically acclaimed by the art world and whose pieces are featured in the newest Chanel boutiques in Los Angeles and Soho.




above: Robert Greene's black and white abstract works are the perfect compliment to architect Peter Marino's Chanel Soho and Los Angeles boutiques

For the past two years, Robert has been preparing for a solo exhibit of his abstract pieces at the Robert Miller Gallery in New York, which will open tomorrow, May 5th, and run through June 18th.



Showing you these extraordinary paintings on a blog simply does not do them justice. Greene is known for his oil paintings celebrating color and texture created through a methodical and intuitive process of painterly construction, meticulous deconstruction and repositioning of oil-on-vellum strips.




The paintings are mounted on quarter-inch-thick aluminum panels and hang virtually flush with the wall, creating a sleek, distinctive, object-oriented style. The work conveys a modern, refined elegance through a unique surface balancing individual mark-making with systematic precision. Throughout the exhibit Greene refers to modernist painting traditions such as the stripe, the grid, the monochrome, all over composition, cut-ups and gesturalism.

Brian:

Brian in situ:


Each of the gallery's five rooms will contain multiple works allowing Greene to explore dynamic color relationships between the paintings. Each abstraction is titled after a person or reminiscence, alluding to portraiture and intimacy through formal means. James, a work consisting of three seven foot wide panels of white, textured, finely cut and reassembled strips of paint, is titled after the artist's brother. Bobby, the artist's childhood nickname, is a bright, warm, gold and white painting of thinly cut horizontal strips inspired by Greene's memory of his grandfather and father's jewelry business.



Other works in the show explode with color, vibrancy and have sensuous, tactile surfaces. In one of these, Giancarlo, Greene pays homage to the spirit of 1960s Italy with broad colorful stripes under thick strokes of white.

Maurice, 2010:

Luc + Martin, 2010:

Eli, 2010:

Marie, 2010:

detail:

Evie, 2010:

Red, 2010:

Jean-Claude, 2006:

detail:

Cesar, 2010:


Here's a 2009 interview with Robert about his latest works from BOMB Magazine:


Greene’s paintings have been included in the Whitney Biennial and are included in numerous public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. He was the subject of a retrospective at the Stedelijk Bureau Museum in Amsterdam. His work is included in numerous private collections in the United States and Europe. Recently Greene has created works commissioned for Chanel boutiques worldwide.

Robert's abstract works are featured in the Chanel Boutiques in Soho and on Robertson Avenue in Los Angeles as shown below:

images courtesy of the artist and the Robert Miller Gallery

Robert Greene At The Robert Miller Gallery
May 5, 2011 - June 18th, 2011
Opening: Thursday, May 5 · 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Location: Robert Miller Gallery
524 West 26th Street
New York, NY

Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 am to 6:00 pm. For further information, please contact the gallery at 212.366.4774 or via email: rmg@robertmillergallery.com

Celebrating Hairy Men; A Beautiful Book And A Backlash To Waxed Men Everywhere

Hairy, Photographs by: Robert Greene


This latest book is categorized by powerHouse books as "Gay Interest/Nudity" but it's so much more than that. At a time when waxed chests and smooth bodies are all the rage (note my previous post on Gillette's manscaping site, Norelco's Bodygroom Manalogues and the Mangroomer), I am so pleased to see someone celebrating the masculinity of a hairy body. All hail the hirsute!

Not that I want a fur rug to spoon with, or that a hairy hiney turns me on, but because the natural beauty of a testosterone-laden male form is far preferable to me than that of a man who looks and feels like a dolphin- or a 12 year old. Or whose legs are smoother than mine. I even had some exes who were handsomely hirsute and went to the trouble to painfully wax themselves. Yuck.

That said, let me introduce you to the latest book of photographs by artist Robert Greene, Hairy which will be followed by a gallery of Hairy Hotties.

images from the book:



The following text is courtesy of powerHouse books:

Painterly rhythms have seeped their way into Robert Greene’s world of photography in Hairy, a collection of Greene’s images taken over many years, in many places, of many dogs, and many hairy men. An undercurrent of über-masculinity and its sexiness is revealed, yet not in the familiar form of muscular, hard-jawed, clean-cut youth. Instead, Greene celebrates a more restrained and naturalistic virility.

Greene’s photographic eye is full of adoration for his subjects and their environments. There is a very intimate, personal feeling here; one not posed, but observed and captured. Greene shifts from long-range portraiture, to close-up shots where specific textures, shapes, and tones become the subject of the image. This abstraction weaves a visual spell, such that even those without a predilection for hirsute men will be enthralled. The photographs provide the space for longing, imagination, and adventure. Hairy is an unusually quintessential book—portraying an incredibly focused and fleshed-out vision of a very beautiful, hairy world where man, dog, and nature swirl together.

Images from the book:



Hairy will be released in conjunction with an exhibition at Robert Miller Gallery in New York City. Pssst... if you pre-order it from amazon as shown below it will cost you less.


Hardcover, 9.25 x 12 inches, 96 pages, 85 tritone photographs
ISBN: 978-1-57687-527-8


About the artist/author:
Robert Greene was born in New York City in 1953. He attended Syracuse University, College of Visual and Performing Arts, before receiving his Bachelor of Industrial Design degree from Pratt Institute in 1976. Greene is both a fine-art photographer and painter, and is currently represented by Robert Miller Gallery in New York City. His painting was included in the 1987 Whitney Biennial, and his work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California.


Be sure to see Robert's work at the Robert Miller Gallery online here.

See Robert Greene on Artnet here.

Some Hairy Hotties For You:

above: Clive Owen

above: Jon Hamm

above: Peter Saarsgard

above: English rugby star Ben Cohen

above: Paul Rudd

above: Matt Lauer

above: Simon Cowell

above: Sam Elliott

above: Alec Baldwin

above: Hugh Jackman

above: Sean Connery

above images of Shawn Christian courtesy of squarehippies.com

above: Tom Selleck

I'm not alone in my predilection for hairy men, there are tons of sites that feature hirsute men or focus on hairy chests:
Square Hippies has a great gallery of chests both hairy and smooth (A shirtless vault) and a Guess This Chest game.
Bearotic
The Hairy Chest Celebrity Pool on flickr
Hairy Chests of The Rich and Famous
The Return Of the Chest Hair (gallery) on Daily Beast.

and check this out...

above: the shirt reproduces his actual chest hair in a stretch fit t-shirt. The work, entitled “Finally Chest Hair” was created in 1997, but it was recently featured in an exhibition entitled “Vreemde Dingen” (Strange Things) at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.

Amazon's Guide to Famous Hairy Chests