Daniel Gerhartz: Meander

Biography of Daniel Gerhartz ( , American )

Daniel F. Gerhartz was born in 1965 in Kewaskum, Wisconsin where he now lives with his wife Jennifer and their three young children. His interest in art piqued at an early age when a teenage friend suggested they spend one dreary afternoon drawing. It was at that moment that he discovered his lifework.
Gerhartz’ compelling paintings resonate an honesty, integrity and a directness immediately evident to the viewer. The artist’s skillful and technically adept work celebrates the created world, human form , personal relationships and connection with landscapes and environments of special importance.

Gerhartz’ commanding paintings, credentials and impressive accomplishments transcend the artist’s young age. For the past decade, his paintings have been exhibited in museum, national invitational and prominent gallery exhibitions. Among his award winning paintings are Jennifer, Coffee, and Dream Lake, each of which has been awarded the Nona Jean Hulsey Buyers’ Choice Award at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame’s Prix de West Show in 1993, 1994 and 1999. In 2001, he was presented with the show’s Frederic Remington Painting Award for exceptional artistic merit for his painting The Dance.

Schooled at the Academy of Art in Chicago, Illinois, Gerhartz also studied with renowned artist/instructors John Baitinger, Richard Schmid and Bill Parks. Dan is inspired by Russian, European and American masters including Nicolai Fechin, John Singer Sargent, Joaquin Sorolla, Carl Von Marr and Anders Zorn.

Gerhartz has been featured in publications such as Southwest Art, Focus Sante Fe, Art Talk and Art of the West along with the hardbound book, Creative Oil Painting, Techniques from 15 Master Painters by Stephen Doherty. His teaching credentials include the Scottsdale Artists’ School in Scottsdale, Arizona, and The Fechin Institute in Taos, New Mexico. Gerhartz’ work is included in the permanent collection of the West Bend Art Museum in Wisconsin and the Huntsville Museum of Art in Alabama.

“My desire as an artist is that the images I paint would point to the Creator, and not to me, the conveyor. J.S. Bach said it well as he signed his work, “Soli Deo Gloria,” To God alone be the glory.” – Daniel F. Gerhartz

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Biography of Daniel Gerhartz ( , )

Born in 1965 in Kewaskum, Wisconsin, where he now lives with his wife Jennifer, and their young children, Dan’s interest in art emerged as a teenager. Studies at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, Illinois and his voracious appetite for museums and the modern masters such as John Singer Sargent, Alphonse Mucha, Nicolai Fechin, Joaquin Sorolla, Carl von Marr as well as a host of other French and American impressionists have inspired him. Dan has a particular interest and appreciation for modern Russian art and the sumptuous canvases of the painters Nicolai Fechin, Isaac Levitan and Ilya Repin. As Dan says, their paintings are “completely loose yet deliberate and faithful, not at all flashy. My desire as an artist is that the images I paint would point to the Creator, and not to me, the conveyor. J.S. Bach said it well as he signed his work, Soli Deo Gloria, To God alone be the glory.” Indeed, the powerful and evocative beauty of Gerhartzs paintings is also due in large measure to looseness, honesty and faithfulness of his style. Dan’s paintings embrace a range of subjects, most prominently the female figure in either a pastoral setting or an intimate interior. He is at his best with subjects from everyday life, genre subjects, sacred-idyllic landscapes or figures in quiet repose, meditation or contemplative isolation.

His mastery of the female figure, the clothed figure especially, is brilliant. He has drawn inspiration from the very old tradition of romanticism and symbolism. His absolutely lavish surfaces, color and lighting are in harmony with his expressionistic brushstroke, application and modeling of light and shade. His paintings are sensitive yet evocative creations, which dramatize his bold and ambitious technique. He is at his very best when he allows himself to explore the surface in a free and painterly manner, while retaining his sense of other worldliness. His subjects evoke a timelessness and idealism, yet for the most part Dan has drawn upon his home and community in Wisconsin, including family and friends. His sense of intimacy and honesty with regard to his subjects are a direct result of his closeness and proximity to them. A projection of tranquility, repose and rich introspection result from his knowledge of the content of his art. In Gerhartz’s pictures the ordinary or commonplace is transformed into a higher reality and consequently a sense of greater importance. Emotions are a vital part of his express design, while his mastery of anatomy, the human form and complex surfaces combine to make his canvases very powerful visual experiences.

Source: Cutter and Cutter Gallery

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