Transcendence

By Richard Mayhew, Mikaela Sardo Lamarche and Andrew Walker

Transcendence is the long-awaited, career-spanning monograph of American landscape painter Richard Mayhew. For over half a century, Richard Mayhew has been reinventing the genre of landscape painting. His luminous work evokes not only physical vistas but also emotions, sounds, and the pure experience of color.

He's known for his masterful use of color and for his unique creative process, inspired by improvisational jazz, which involves pouring paint directly onto the canvas and shaping it into lush, emotional "moodscapes."

• This monograph features 70+ of his most striking works.
• Includes an exclusive interview with the artist, an introduction by his gallerist Mikaela Sardo Lamarche, and an essay by Andrew Walker, director of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art
• Through engaging with his work, readers are invited into deep explorations of their own inner landscapes.



Transcendence is a richly rewarding celebration of an iconic artist that will make you rethink everything you know about landscape painting.

Mayhew's distinctive style emerges from his roots as a jazz musician, his immersion in the Abstract Expressionist movement, his African American, Cherokee, and Shinnecock heritage, and his unique affinity for the landscapes of the American West—but his paintings transcend boundaries of location and identity.

• Great for lovers of fine art, landscape painting, Abstract Expressionism, as well as those who are interested in the intersection of art, music, and emotion
• A lush celebration of Richard Mayhew's work, and an ideal introductory book for new fans
• Add it to the collection of books like Abstract Expressionism by Carter Ratcliff, Jeremy Lewison, Susan Davidson, and David Anfam; California Landscapes: Richard Diebenkorn / Wayne Thiebaud by John Yau; and The Art of Richard Mayhew: A Critical Analysis with Interviews by Janet Berry Hess.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chronicle Books Digital
• Release date: Mar 3, 2020
• ISBN: 9781452179056

Richard Mayhew

Richard Mayhew is a renowned painter and educator. He lives in Santa Cruz, California.

Book preview

Introduction

Are you bowed down in heart?

Do you but hear the clashing

discords and the din of life?

Then come away,

come to the peaceful wood,

Here bathe your soul in silence . . .

FROM DEEP IN THE QUIET WOOD

BY JAMES WELDON JOHNSON

Richard Mayhew is a singular artist. Exceptionally good at his craft, he has pursued one sole subject for the past seven decades: the landscape.

Often overlooked as a contemporary subject, Mayhew has liberated the genre from a more traditional painting style based on observation and replication. This departure draws from the artist’s memories, feelings, unique color sensibility, and the abstract possibilities of nature in painting. The results are universally accessible works that explore the intersections of representation and abstraction by using the exterior natural world and the interior human (emotional and spiritual) landscape as potent source material.

While the paintings are subtly familiar, a sense of mystery and the unknown pervades them; for these are not real, physical locations, nor do they stand still in time. The canvases are imbued with the glow and ebb of light, and delicious saturated colors synthesize to create shifting light patterns that imply the passage of moments in time and changing seasons. Ambiguity permeates—is it spring or autumn? Dawn or dusk? Unpretentious and inviting, with paths often leading into the landscape from the foreground, Mayhew’s vistas welcome the viewer to enter the picture and participate in the experience. When viewed in natural light, the paintings constantly evolve and change over the course of a day, and from season to season, appearing continually fresh and new as one might observe in nature.

An ideal world where nature flourishes, unlikely colors harmoniously blend, and light becomes a dynamic force invigorating the entire picture plane, these serene scenes without human presence offer a much-needed refuge from our tumultuous times. They elevate and transport the viewer into another sphere free from the confines of daily life, space, and time.

Mayhew’s paintings offer a quiet space separate from clamor and din, and we are grateful he has shared his continuous vision with us and the world at large. Representing the artist since 1995 has been a privilege, and we have personally observed the power of his art to transform and enhance the lives of those who come into contact with it. This book is not only timely but also well deserved and will help more people share and engage with the singular, transcendent art of Richard Mayhew.

MIKAELA SARDO LAMARCHE

DIRECTOR AND CURATOR

ACA GALLERIES, NEW YORK CITY

Richard Mayhew’s Creative Consciousness

BY ANDREW WALKER

George Inness (1825–1894), Old Apple Trees

ca. 1880–85, transparent and opaque watercolor on paper, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, purchased with funds provided by the Council