Pamela Michaelis
"Many years ago I stood at night looking up into the broad windows of the Palace of Government in Merida, in the Yucatan. On the walls of the Palace is a series of enormous murals painted by a beloved Yucatecan artist. At the time, the murals immediately brought to mind a painting by Albuquerque artist Arthur Sussman, an artist beloved in his land. Eerily similar in style and passion to the Yucatecan murals, the Sussman painting that I remembered was one based on the Biblical story of Jacob wrestling the angel, depicting a struggle between the supernatural and the human. Arthur Sussman, for as long as we knew him, wrestled with angels while he painted with passion and devotion in his studio in downtown Albuquerque. Known for his expressive, contemporary Biblical paintings, Arthur’s understated technique had classical figures emerging from a romantic yet abstract atmosphere. Arthur was ever the teacher: a visit to his studio/gallery was never just a brief greeting; rather, one was pulled into whatever painting was being worked on because scholarly Arthur wanted you to have at least a spare understanding of the complex meanings behind the images he created on canvas. In the permanent collection of the Albuquerque Museum is a Sussman painting acquired in 1999. Entitled “Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors”, the painting is a monumental work depicting the Biblical Joseph and his eleven brothers. Arthur Sussman, a man of strong personality, deep convictions and great talent, died on January 10th at the age of 80, leaving a distinct rent in the fabric of Albuquerque."
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January 27, 2008
All Paintings © 1994 Arthur Sussman Gallery