View the extraordinary exhibition, Apokalupsis: An Uncovering at the Morris Museum of Art. Featuring more than thirty remarkable paintings and drawings by celebrated animalier Joseph H. Sulkowski, it is an interpretive vision inspired by the natural world and the artist’s love of sporting dogs, terriers, and foxhounds—the principal subjects of the present exhibition. But it is more than that, really. It is a collection whose chief hallmark is beauty. Sulkoswki refers to his style of painting as “poetic realism,” and that is reflected throughout the exhibition.
Joseph H. Sulkowski, British Labs in the Scottish Highlands, undated. Oil on canvas. Collection of Mr. Cal Turner. Courtesy of the artist.
A native of Pittsburgh, Sulkowski began his formal studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts before moving on to the Art Students League in New York City, where he studied from 1974 until 1979. His time at the League led to an apprenticeship with Frank Mason. Mason, a renowned artist who taught at the League for 58 years, was an authority on 17th century Flemish and Italian painting techniques, and he gave young Sulkowski a solid grounding in the methods of the Old Masters. Like Mason, Sulkowski became a painter in the realist style and, over the years of his long and successful career, he has achieved renown for his dog portraits and sporting scenes.
Joseph H. Sulkowski, Air Element, 2018. Oil on canvas. Collection of Edmund S. Twining III. Courtesy of the artist.
The present exhibition offers a kind of overview through paintings that span Sulkowski’s long career, but the highlight of the exhibition is without doubt his monumental APOKALUPSIS, a mural-sized painting—8 feet tall and very nearly 13 feet wide—that is the product of a lifetime of personal reflection and the artist’s contemplation of the very meaning of human existence. His use of dog imagery is his vehicle for the expression of an allegorical theme that is important to him. He means to state through this image that all of life is connected, that all is One.
Joseph H. Sulkowski, Earth Element, 2018. Oil on canvas. Collection of Edmund S. Twining III. Courtesy of the artist.
As a sporting artist, Sulkowski enjoys a serious following among collectors around the world for his masterful paintings of dogs. Years of observation of canine behavior spoke to him of our human condition and inspired the insight that led to APOKALUPSIS. He saw dogs as a metaphor for humanity and the landscape they inhabit as a symbol for the time and space humans negotiate in their daily lives. This monumental composition contains references to the Seven Deadly Sins, Five Senses, Four Elements, and Three Graces, bringing to life the elements that influence our relationships and awareness of one another, the planet we inhabit, and the larger universe.
Joseph H. Sulkowski, Fire Element, 2018. Oil on canvas. Collection of Edmund S. Twining III. Courtesy of the artist.
As he has stated, “growing up I was exposed to my father’s library of art books and was instantly drawn to the masterworks of Da Vinci and Michelangelo which inspired me to one day create a masterwork of my own. I consider APOKALUPSIS: An Uncovering the culmination of my 50-year career as an artist in the classical tradition.
Joseph H. Sulkowski, Water Element, 2016. Oil on canvas. Collection of Edmund S. Twining III. Courtesy of the artist.
I have put everything I have come to know and experience about life and living on a grand canvas in allegorical form. We, as human beings, have always enjoyed hearing stories. An allegorical approach seemed to me the most appropriate way to express the story of what I have discovered to be fundamental truths of human existence: all of life is connected; All is One.”
The exhibition remains on view at the Morris through April 28 before going on to the American Kennel Club’s Museum of the Dog in New York City.
Contact Info:
Morris Museum of Art
1 Tenth Street, Augusta, Georgia 30901
706-724-7501
www.themorris.org