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The collection includes gaudy rhinestone, gold, and faux pearl brooches; pins in the shapes of circles, flowers, leaves, and bows; and coiled or looping necklaces. In the top left corner, a gold piece in the form of a twist of rope shares space in a cardboard box with what appears to be a rhinestone earring. A red flower brooch and a necklace of green beads in the lower right corner provide pops of color in the painting; the objects are set against a flat black background. Schonzeit gives the overall image a slightly out-of-focus quality that helps to unify the disparate pieces.
Several aspects of the painting demonstrate Photorealism’s debt to Pop art: the use of photography to create the image, the legitimization of everyday or commercial objects as high-art subject matter, and the use of acrylic paint and an airbrush gun. Some characteristics of the painting, however, such as the large size, the all-over painting, and the interest in form and color, suggest the influence of Abstract Expressionism as well. Schonzeit concurs, “I don’t see myself as a realist. I think my work is very abstract. It’s equally ‘apples’ and ‘green.’ The subject can vary widely.” [2]
Scholars have debated the meaning, or lack of meaning, in Photorealist paintings. Some have suggested that the Photorealists care little for the significance of the subject matter of their work, preferring to concentrate on creating works of perfect verisimilitude. Others have worked to extract meaning from the objects chosen by Photorealist painters. Schonzeit himself has said, “I think people will always make things that refer to the experience of life, of being a human being, of moving through this time that we are given. And artists hope that what we do will resonate as adequately universal for people to see it and relate to it over time.” [3] By magnifying the common costume jewelry pieces depicted in Englishtown Jewels, Schonzeit gives them significance and value that they did not truly possess. “The paintings that I do are often gaudy and crude, the subjects never the finest things. I focus (or don’t focus) on the things that are often dismissed as worthless, certainly of no true art value. … I hope to give the viewer a heightened experience and awareness of the things that one encounters every day.” [4]
Perhaps, the artist implies, their value lies in the nostalgia and memories once attached to these now cast-off pieces.
Notes:
[1] Hobbs to Allison Slaby, email, June 21, 2012, and Schonzeit, “Schonzeit on Schonzeit,” Art and Artists 10 (January 1976), 12.
[2] Schonzeit interview, CP On Air Network Classic Talk with Bing and Dennis: Ben Schonzeit, October 14, 2011 http://www.cpli.com/cponair/cpli_4217.html#.
[3] Schonzeit interview.
[4] Schonzeit, “Schonzeit on Schonzeit,” 12.
ProvenanceBefore 2006
Robert C. Hobbs (born 1946) and Jean Crutchfield, Richmond, VA. [1]
From 2006
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, given by Robert C. Hobbs and Jean Crutchfield on December 21, 2006. [2]
Notes:
[1] Deed of Gift, Object File.
[2] See Note 1.
Exhibition History2008
New World Views: Gifts from Jean Crutchfield and Robert Hobbs
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (5/20/2008-8/31/2008)
2022
Chrome Dreams and Infinite Reflections: American Photorealsim
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (7/15/2022-12/31/2022)
Published ReferencesReynolda House Museum of American Art, Reynolda: Her Muses, Her Stories , with contributions by Martha R. Severens and David Park Curry (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Reynolda House Museum of American Art affiliated with Wake Forest University, 2017). pg 248, 249
DepartmentAmerican Art
Englishtown Jewels
Artist
Ben Schonzeit
(born 1942)
Date1971
Mediumairbrushed acrylic on canvas
DimensionsCanvas: 60 × 72 in. (152.4 × 182.9 cm)
Signed<not signed>
Credit LineGift of Jean Crutchfield and Robert Hobbs
Copyright© Ben Schonzeit
Object number2006.2.2
DescriptionBen Schonzeit’s Englishtown Jewels depicts a jumbled collection of jewelry scattered across a dark surface. At far right, a hand-lettered card bearing the letters “Cen eac” suggests the context for the collection: the jewelry is for sale and is being sold cheaply, for a certain number of “cents each.” According to Robert Hobbs and Jean Crutchfield, who donated the painting to Reynolda House Museum of America Art in 2006, Schonzeit took the photograph on which the painting is based at a New Jersey flea market; the title would suggest Englishtown, New Jersey, the location of a highly popular market. Schonzeit explains his sources: “Then there is the miscellaneous junk that shows up all over the place in my work. These jewels, knives, figurines come from the middle-class, sometimes lower class, landscape of the city. Many of the things I paint are in the top-of-the-TV category of sculpture. Most of the colour in this city-garish gaudy colour is around the hippie areas and the Latin neighborhoods. When I go out to photograph, I usually wind up in the midst of cheap colourful trash, looking for some super purple. I want to take my subjects from the present things that will fall apart tomorrow.” [1]The collection includes gaudy rhinestone, gold, and faux pearl brooches; pins in the shapes of circles, flowers, leaves, and bows; and coiled or looping necklaces. In the top left corner, a gold piece in the form of a twist of rope shares space in a cardboard box with what appears to be a rhinestone earring. A red flower brooch and a necklace of green beads in the lower right corner provide pops of color in the painting; the objects are set against a flat black background. Schonzeit gives the overall image a slightly out-of-focus quality that helps to unify the disparate pieces.
Several aspects of the painting demonstrate Photorealism’s debt to Pop art: the use of photography to create the image, the legitimization of everyday or commercial objects as high-art subject matter, and the use of acrylic paint and an airbrush gun. Some characteristics of the painting, however, such as the large size, the all-over painting, and the interest in form and color, suggest the influence of Abstract Expressionism as well. Schonzeit concurs, “I don’t see myself as a realist. I think my work is very abstract. It’s equally ‘apples’ and ‘green.’ The subject can vary widely.” [2]
Scholars have debated the meaning, or lack of meaning, in Photorealist paintings. Some have suggested that the Photorealists care little for the significance of the subject matter of their work, preferring to concentrate on creating works of perfect verisimilitude. Others have worked to extract meaning from the objects chosen by Photorealist painters. Schonzeit himself has said, “I think people will always make things that refer to the experience of life, of being a human being, of moving through this time that we are given. And artists hope that what we do will resonate as adequately universal for people to see it and relate to it over time.” [3] By magnifying the common costume jewelry pieces depicted in Englishtown Jewels, Schonzeit gives them significance and value that they did not truly possess. “The paintings that I do are often gaudy and crude, the subjects never the finest things. I focus (or don’t focus) on the things that are often dismissed as worthless, certainly of no true art value. … I hope to give the viewer a heightened experience and awareness of the things that one encounters every day.” [4]
Perhaps, the artist implies, their value lies in the nostalgia and memories once attached to these now cast-off pieces.
Notes:
[1] Hobbs to Allison Slaby, email, June 21, 2012, and Schonzeit, “Schonzeit on Schonzeit,” Art and Artists 10 (January 1976), 12.
[2] Schonzeit interview, CP On Air Network Classic Talk with Bing and Dennis: Ben Schonzeit, October 14, 2011 http://www.cpli.com/cponair/cpli_4217.html#.
[3] Schonzeit interview.
[4] Schonzeit, “Schonzeit on Schonzeit,” 12.
ProvenanceBefore 2006
Robert C. Hobbs (born 1946) and Jean Crutchfield, Richmond, VA. [1]
From 2006
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, given by Robert C. Hobbs and Jean Crutchfield on December 21, 2006. [2]
Notes:
[1] Deed of Gift, Object File.
[2] See Note 1.
Exhibition History2008
New World Views: Gifts from Jean Crutchfield and Robert Hobbs
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (5/20/2008-8/31/2008)
2022
Chrome Dreams and Infinite Reflections: American Photorealsim
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (7/15/2022-12/31/2022)
Published ReferencesReynolda House Museum of American Art, Reynolda: Her Muses, Her Stories , with contributions by Martha R. Severens and David Park Curry (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Reynolda House Museum of American Art affiliated with Wake Forest University, 2017). pg 248, 249
Status
Not on view