Saul Chase , American (1945 - )

  About the Artist

The beauty of Chase's work arises out of
The inherent contradiction between his
subject and the rendering. Chase paints
the urban landscape of barren streets,
warehouses, beaches, and subways in
contrast with a palette of soft muted colors.
There is nothing as complicated as simplicity
and to achieve his deliberate
monotones Chase may use as many as 103
colors in a single painting. In recreating the
memory of an event Chase rebuilds his
vision of the urban landscape as a facsimile
of his initial impression. Recently
Chase has turned to silk screen printing as
a medium finding it ideal in translating his
visions.

If you dissect a Chase painting and
reduce it to its basic compounds and
materials you will not find the painting,
something more is expressed through the
artist. That something more is beauty.
Analyze and dissect a painting too carefully
and the beauty will disappear. The whole is
always more than the sum total of the
parts. Saul Chase's paintings are very
simply beautiful, a not often used adjective
in the art world, where much of the beauty
has been theorized out of the canvas in
favor of mental gymnastics.
On the other hand, Chase's paintings
are to be approached totally through the
heart. They are images washed clean of
prejudices. They emerge as if reborn. The
urban landscape is presented with innocence
and wonder. This is the "landscape"
Chase grew up with in the Bronx. Chase
developed a deep rapport with his
environment, as children do, oblivious to
preconceived ideas, knowing no other world
but the one within. As unconcerned with the
pedestrian idea of "objective reality,” the
subway station, Coney Island and the I ND as
identities disappear, existence arises
luminous as a tension caught in the cobweb of our minds.

One Man Shows
1972 A.C.A. Gallery
1978 Andrew Crispo Gallery, New York
Group Exhibitions
1969 A.C.A. Galleries
1969 National Academy of Design Annual
1971 American Academy of Arts and
Letters
1971 A.C.A. Galleries
1972 Butler Art Institute of American Art,
Youngstown, Ohio
1972 St. Mary's College of Maryland
1972-74 Sara Roby Collection Traveling to
Museums
1972 National Academy of Design Annual
1974 American Academy of Arts and
Letters Annual
1974 National Academy of Design Annual
1976 American Academy of Arts and
Letters

1976 The Queens Museum
1977 National Academy of Design Annual
Awards
1969 S.J.Wallace Truman Prize,
National Academy of Design
144th Annual Exhibition
1972 Salmagundi Club Award,
Audubon Artists Society Annual
1972 S.J. Wallace Truman Prize,
National Academy of Design
147th Annual
1974 Julius Hallgarten Prize, National
Academy of Design 149th Annual
Exhibition
1977 Julius Hallgarten Prize, National
Academy of design, 152nd
Annual Exhibition

Museum and Public
Collections

The Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York
The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia
Joseph Hirshhorn Collection, Washington,
D.C.
Georgia Museum of Art, University of
Georgia, Athens
Sara Roby Foundation, New York
Wichita State University Museum of Art,
Kansas
Canton Art Institute, Ohio
Citibank, New York
Cleveland Museum of Art