Santa Rosa Junior College

Robert Chiarito — Untitled, Graphite, 19" x 25"

Artist Statement

As a painter coming up in the late sixties and early seventies, I was trained by formalists for whom the legacy of Abstract Expressionism was still quite alive and well. I learned a lot from m y teachers in relation to composition, paint handling, expression and commitment.

A few years later when I became interested in the figure, it seemed like a taboo subject, which, of course, made it all the more enticing. I spent five or six years working from direct observation of the figure in both drawing and painting until the work naturally evolved towards invention.

In many ways, I have come full circle. I now work entirely from invention and very abstractly. The abstraction is, however, energized by the presence of the human form, which also gives rise to content.

I now rarely draw from life except for the occasional figure drawing in class. The drawings exhibited here, all from life and rescued from the depths of my studio, demonstrate a range of interests from portraiture to structural abstraction of the figure.

June 27, 2010
Santa Cruz

FIGURING OUT THE FIGURE

Artist Statement