ADAM CVIJANOVIC.RICHARD ANDERSON FINE ARTS Adam Cvijanovic's Monument Valley Monument Valley, scenic arid region, c.2,000 sq mi (5,000 sq km), SE Utah and NE Ariz. Located in the Navajo Indian Reservation, Monument Valley is not a true valley but an area of monolithlike buttes and pinnacles that rise as much as 1,000 ft (300 m) above the , $999, is a full-gallery installation, a floor-to-ceiling, seventy-six-and-a-half-foot-long landscape painting spanning four walls, ostensibly os·ten·si·ble adj. Represented or appearing as such; ostensive: His ostensible purpose was charity, but his real goal was popularity. portraying the desert terrain where Arizona meets Utah, a region familiar to anyone who has ever watched a Hollywood Western. This handpainted rendition of an exterior region meant to be experienced as interior art recalls the popular cycloramas of the nineteenth century, which afforded spectators three-hundred-and-sixty-degree painted vistas of a given landscape. But unlike a typical panorama, there is no seamless narrative or comprehensive view. Cvijanovic's eclectic approach to his subject suggests another nineteenth-century precedent, the exotic wallpapers of Jean Zuber, who evoked colonial scenes and foreign locales without being overly concerned with historic, ethnic, or topographic accuracy. At the same time, Cvijanovic's selective presentation of detail also conjures the large-scale color photographic wallpapers sometimes used by low-end commercial decorators to brighten basement cafeterias and rumpus rooms with high-intensity images of "nature." Cvijanovic is a self-taught painter in midcareer whose work until now has consisted of repertorial landscapes that describe the changing face of America. His evocation of Monument Valley is an imaginary one, with panels simultaneously depicting the Hoover Dam Hoover Dam, 726 ft (221 m) high and 1,244 ft (379 m) long, on the Colorado River between Nev. and Ariz.; one of the world's largest dams. Built between 1931 and 1936 by the U.S. , dancing Hopis and Navajos, John Ford shooting the 1956 film The Searchers, saguaro saguaro: see cactus. saguaro Large, candelabra-shaped, branched cactus (Cereus giganteus, or Carnegiea gigantea) native to Mexico, Arizona, and California. Slow-growing at first, mature saguaros may eventually reach 50 ft (15 m) in height. cactus forests, and desert highways stretching off into the far distance. Like Hollywood, which has historically reformulated desert locales - mixing the buttes Buttes is a municipality in the district of Val-de-Travers in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. of Monument Valley with the salt fiats of Nevada, say - to suit its needs for rugged, monumental, or romantic scenery, Cvijanovic blends the actual and fantastical. But with his behind-the-scenes view of Ford's moviemaking mov·ie·mak·er n. One that makes movies, especially professionally. mov ie·mak , Cvijanovic exposes the mechanisms of that reformulation: In his version a group of Native Americans, juxtaposed jux·ta·pose tr.v. jux·ta·posed, jux·ta·pos·ing, jux·ta·pos·es To place side by side, especially for comparison or contrast. with crewmen holding cameras, lights, and ladders, are revealed as actors on a set. Cvijanovic even takes things a step further, inviting others to get in on his redefinition of the natural world: The forty-six latex-house-paint-on-Tyvek panels are ingeniously composed so that the work can be reconstructed to include whichever scenes or landscape elements one prefers, in whatever order one likes. Monument Valley will be reproduced in an edition of ten (the question of whether the artist will paint each version after tracings of the original or have them printed like wallpaper has been left open-ended), and the series of ten will only be considered complete when each work in its entirety has been successfully placed in a private home, a museum, or another environment, at which point Cvijanovic will document its installation in photographs. Monument Valley. might seem too clever, were it not so well-executed. Despite a strangely muted palette of sandy beiges, grayish blues, and faded greens and the dry, flat nature of the medium, Cvijanovic creates compelling imagery. With this work, he appears as a natural successor to Eric Fischl Eric Fischl (born 1948) is an American painter. Life Fischl was born in New York City and grew up on suburban Long Island; his family moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 1967. ; or better yet, Eric Fischl mixed with a little Mark Tansey Mark Tansey (born 1949- in San Jose, California) is an American postmodern painter best known for monochromatic works which include commentary in their title, for example The Triumph of the New York School from 1984. , as Cvijanovic's take on the American scene is more cerebral, less confrontational than Fischl's fantasies of consumption and possession played out against suburban backyards and beaches. Cvijanovic's American landscape is a place of exalted and iconic beauty that we cut and paste To move an object from one location to another. When the operation is complete, there is nothing left in the original location. It may refer to relocating files from one folder to another or to relocating selected text or images from one document to another. to suit our own personal desires: American wallpaper for American Dreams. |
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