John Wesley

JOHN WESLEY

MAN AND BEAST: 1965 - 1996

April 24 through May 19

Jessica Fredericks Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of paintings by JOHN WESLEY.  This will be Mr. Wesley’s first survey of paintings since his European retrospective organized in 1993 by R.H. Fuchs, Udo Kittelman, and Kasper Konig, and will be the first exhibition to focus solely on a career-long motif of men and women interacting with animals (Man and Beast.)

In “A Journal in Praise of the Art of John Wesley” published in a 1974 edition of unmuzzled OX , Hannah Green wrote,  “Jack is very kind and very warm (literally, physically his skin is warm, even hot sometimes). He identifies with animals and they feel his sympathy. (Busy dogs hurrying along the street on some important business are distracted from it if Jack passes; they stop to investigate Jack and go beside themselves with joy.) When we went to the Central Park Zoo the lion roared; his stomach puffed in and out and his veins stood out; he roared until finally his keeper came and patted his nose and the lion melted, rubbed his mein against the edge of the cage to be patted some more. For weeks after that from time to time Jack imagined he was that lion. He roared -- even in the streets at night.“

Of the six paintings in this exhibition two were made in the 1990’s. One was recently completed in early April and the other has never been exhibited. The painting from the 1980’s and the two from the 1970’s have not been exhibited or reproduced in 15 years. Turkeys, painted in 1965, is one of JOHN WESLEY’s most important and reproduced works.  

Jessica Fredericks Gallery is located at 504 West 22nd Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 11am to 6pm. For further information and/or photographs please contact the gallery by telephone at (212) 633-6555 or fax at (212) 367-9502.