2016
acrylic on paper
32 1/4 x 22 1/4 inches; framed 34 1/4 x 24 1/4 inches
Gift of the Artist for Gala 2016
James Allen is Professor Emeritus at Daemen College in Amherst, N.Y., where he taught in the Fine Arts Department for over forty years. He now resides and has his studio in Williamstown, Massachusetts. His work has been exhibited in twenty-one states across this country, and in Canada and China.
About the current work the artist has this to say:
While musing about what sort of work I might produce for this year's 50th Anniversary Gala and Auction, I found myself drawn to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve. As I scribbled away at small sketches deciding where and how to insert Adam, a seated male figure suggested itself. To my delight, he almost immediately morphed into Sir Isaac Newton, someone who was-- at least initially--quite comfortable sitting under an apple tree. And then man's best friend surprisingly appeared in the tangle of lines, and asserted his role in the narrative. (Would that the vigilant canine had been available many generations earlier, when young Eve was mulling her decision!) And so we have "The Intersection of Science and Religion".
I also note an interesting coincidence that I did not recognize until after the current piece was completed and delivered. Namely, in 1987 when the Albright-Knox Art Gallery celebrated it's 125th anniversary with the historical survey of painting in Buffalo entitled "The Wayward Muse", my contribution to the exhibition was a large work entitled "Expulsion from the Garden"... angel, serpent, and the primal parents, but no scientist in sight.
Jim Allen
jallenart.com