PHOTOREALISM: Beginnings to Today - The Sydney and Walda Besthoff Collection, 2014

Miranda Lash with contributions by Russell Lord Louis K. Meisel

NOMA New Orleans Museum of Art In association with Scala Arts Publishers, Inc. 2014

Photography by Russel Lord
Detail: Le Jeu des billes et des beaux anges pour Walda Watercolor on vintage linen Whatman paper with gold and silver powders, 1999, 27 1/2 X 41 1/2 inches

Miranda Lash Seeing Analytically: Photorealism as the "Art of Our Time"

"The Besthoff's watercolor by Claire Khalil, Le jeu des billes et des beaux anges pour Walda [The game of marbles and beautiful angels for Walda], 1999, is a fanciful rendering of their residence [not a Photorealist painting to be sure], showing paintings by Eddy, Flack, and many others from the collection adorning the rooms while Giottoesque angels and marbles inspired by Bell's paintings seem to bounce off the walls."

Miranda Lash, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, New Orleans Museum

The Butler Institute of American Art, essay by Louis A. Zona, Director 2002 '“ 2003

'Art is art and everything else is everything else.'
'“ Ad Reinhardt

Georgio De Chirico upon viewing the work of Titian is said to have experienced a 'revelation,' part of which was what he called a return to 'craft.' Equally important however was the discovery that Titian's view of the natural, as well as the supernatural, emphasized a very personal vision that superseded established artistic traditions. It was a very personal vision delivered via a remarkable level of craftsmanship. Centuries later we find in the paintings of Claire Khalil a similar, highly personal, extraordinarily original vision and, interestingly enough, a return to craft. In a age in which the role of skill is de-emphasized, when traditional aesthetics have been deemed unessential and concepts generally uninspired '“ Khalil's work shines ever so brightly. In fact, at a time when the very act of painting is questioned in terms of its relevance in the digital age, Claire Khalil reminds us that paint on canvas is every bit as valued as it was in the golden age of Titian.

This exhibition clearly demonstrates that Claire Khalil is among the elite of post modern artists and perhaps the finest painter of this genre. In works such as Kinvarra Dungaire Castle/Fuga and Moonlight '“ The Cliffs of Moher is revealed not only the depth and originality of her vision, but a most remarkable facility and understanding of her medium. These are works that recall the brilliant handling and illusionist wonderment of the Magic Realists. But the true power of these paintings has much to do with Khalil's ability to filter reality through a bountiful imagination. What results is a Turneresque world of amazing skies and seas in so remarkable light that nothing appears as ordinary.

The artist's ability to manipulate space and to purposely overload the rectangle with a bounty of visual delicacies is seen in such works as Lissadell. Created is a magical world for the eye and mind where the viewer seems to float above and through a truly wondrous place. Louisiana Annunciation provides the added experience of an art historical reference to medieval iconography replete with mandala form which both serves as an organizational device as well as to provide architectural references to the basilica form. Khalil has given us a beautiful, beautiful work highly decorative yet intellectually compelling.

Claire Khalil's journey into the historical past takes more than a cursory stop in the Rocco. Such eighteenth century works such as Duchesses of Dialogue revisits that era from the vantage point of the twenty-first century, and through the screen of cubistic space. A patterned sky of pastel architecture forms floats above a countryside of Watteau-like Personages.

Khalil's Woman and Literature series blends the ageless themes of the female model with The informal still life. Set on beds of exquisite color and material textures, these sweet and serene works remind us that in the end '“ art is really a quest for beauty.

Louis A. Zona
Director
The Butler Institute of American Art
October 12 - December 28, 2003

"Ode to Discernment" by Dan Cameron, Frieze, January - February 1994

Art News, art review by Barbara MacAdam, 1993

The New York Times art review by Roberta Smith, 1993

New York Magazine, Fall Preview by Edith Newhall, 1993

The New York Times, Art Dealers Association Show, Photography by Bill Cunningham, 1993

Book Jacket cover, The Firemans's Fair by Josephine Humphreys, art Claire Khalil, The Brooklyn Bridge Centennial [detail], 1984 -1985

The New York Times, House Portraits by Terry Trucco, 1991

The Vindicator , art review, Butler Institute of American art by Clyde Singer, 1986