On view:
Morton Fine Art
52 O St #302
Washington, DC 20001
(202) 628-2787
http://www.mortonfineart.com
mortonfineart@gmail.com
Neo-Byzantine (Red Hot), 2019, 24″x20″, oil on panel
Betrayal Wall, 2019, 24″x24″, oil on panel
El Ingres-Frida (Appropriation of Culture), 2019, 24″x24″, oil on canvas
Balloon Dumpster (The Party’s Over), 2019, 16″x20″, oil on panel
| About Only Painted Fire |
| In the summer of 2018, I travelled to Italy to see many of my favorite paintings in person for the first time: the early Renaissance frescoes of Giotto, Masaccio, and Piero della
Francesca. Though I was very familiar with the work through reproduction, seeing it with my own eyes was a transformative experience. When I returned home to California, I began a nearly life-size copy of one of my favorite panels of the Giotto frescoes at the Scrovegni chapel in Padua (alternately referred to as The Betrayal of Christ or Judas’ Kiss). I wanted to inhabit the painting, rather than just look at it; I wanted to feel what it was like to make those paintings.
During the process of copying this painting, I became intrigued with Giotto’s stylized depiction of fire, which blazed at the end of several torches along the top of the painting. I realized I had never really painted fire, and for some reason this became an
irresistible challenge. At the same time, I was following the news and trying
to make sense of the polarized and turbulent political climate of our time.
Perhaps due to my newfound fascination with painting fire, certain phrases that
commentators and pundits would use grabbed my attention: “dumpster-fire” and
“trash-fire” especially, used as hyperbolic expressions of frustration and
outrage.
I began to think more deeply about the uses and depictions of fire, symbolically and literally, and the ways in which humans have used fire in rituals. Fire is dangerous and out of control, which also makes it beautiful and sexy and alive. Fire is violent and
destructive, which leads to change, regeneration and rebirth. We speak of
‘trial by fire’ and ‘lost torches’; passionate people can be ‘on fire’’ and
have ‘fire in their belly.’ In California we have “Fire Season” and “high fire
danger” alerts. There are “fire eaters” to entertain us, and parties that “burn
down the house” and light “the roof on fire,” etc… All of these phrases and
notions have been on my mind this past year as I have painted fire and searched
for personal and artistic renewal.
The resulting paintings are not meant as a definitive or conclusive statement, rather as evidence of one painter engaging with the world, following a gut instinct, and doing “research paintings” in order to see what happens. The work can be seen symbolically or
literally, or both; and I invite the viewer to bring their own interpretations
and resonances to the occasion. No matter how we look at our current cultural
moment, regardless of ideology or affiliation, it seems we are living through a
time of great change. These paintings are in some way a response to that
condition.
– VONN SUMNER, 2019 |
Dumpster Fire III, 2019, 16″x16″, oil on panel
Dumpster Fire IV, 2019, 18″x18″, oil on panel
Dumpster Fire II, 2019, 18″x14″, oil on canvas
KOR, 2019, 16″x12″, oil on canvas
About VONN CUMMINGS SUMNER
Vonn Cummings Sumner grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, the son of a picture framer and a school teacher. Seeing the art that his father was framing, as well as travel in Europe, Central America and India shaped Sumner’s visual aesthetic during his formative years.
He attended the University of California, at Davis, where he earned both a Bachelor’s degree and an M.F.A. in painting, with highest honors. While at Davis he worked closely with Wayne Thiebaud both as a student and as a teaching assistant. Sumner also took summer classes at the San Francisco Art Institute, and is influenced by the Bay Area Figurative movement that centered around that school in the postwar period.
Sumner has exhibited nationally and internationally since 1998. He has been featured or reviewed in many publications including New American Paintings, Elle Décor, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, L.A. Weekly, Art Ltd., Riviera magazine, Hi Fructose, Cartwheel Art, The Painter’s Table, Boom magazine, and Quick Fiction. Sumner has shown regularly throughout the Los Angeles area since 2003, including in a solo museum show- Vonn Sumner: The Other Side of Here- at the Riverside Art Museum in the fall of 2008. A second solo museum exhibition, Vonn Sumner: Stages, followed in 2011 at the Phillips Museum of Art on the campus of Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania. Sumner’s paintings have been shown internationally in Venice, Italy; Manchester, England, and Switzerland. He is represented by Morton Fine Art in Washigton, DC.
Only Painted Fire marks his forth solo exhibition at Morton Fine Art.
Standing Man (on fire), 2019, 16″x12″, oil on canvas
Trashfire IV, 2019, 18″x14″, oil on canvas
Trashfire III, 2019, 18″x14″, oil on canvas
Neo-Byzantine (Japonaiserie), 2019, 24″x20″, oil on paper mounted on panel
A Fire Without a Trashcan, 2019, 16″x12″, oil on canvas
Trashfire II, 2019, 14″x12″, oil on canvas
Trashfire I, 2019, 12″x9.5″, oil on canvas
Link to available artwork by VONN SUMNER
Tags: California Artist, contemporary art, contemporary painting, dc, fire paintings, morton fine art, Only Painted Fire, painting from life, solo exhibition, Trash Fire, Vonn Cummings Sumner, Vonn Sumner, washington
Morton Fine Art: curator's notes 