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January 2018
Review Tim Mosman and Hank Tusinski Tucson International Airport Reviewed by C.J. Shane |
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Tucson International Airport has become an important arts destination in the Old Pueblo. There is art at every level of the airport terminal and on just about every wall. Some paintings were purchased and have become part of TIA’s permanent collection. Just as compelling are the many galleries scattered throughout that airport that exhibit local artists on a revolving basis.
The largest of these galleries is the Central Gallery on the second level. Currently Central Gallery is home to an exhibit of paintings by Tim Mosman and Hank Tusinski. Mosman is a pure abstract painter, and Tusinski is an Impressionist painter who would fit well in the company of Cezanne or the other French Impressionists.
What holds these two painters and their work together is an idea. In their exhibit statement, they use the French word “fanaux” which means lantern, lighthouse or beacon, as a metaphor for the process of painting. Indeed, artists, no matter their artistic style, often shed light on a subject, or as the statement says, creating art “involves coaxing form from the formless, light from darkness.”
The largest of these galleries is the Central Gallery on the second level. Currently Central Gallery is home to an exhibit of paintings by Tim Mosman and Hank Tusinski. Mosman is a pure abstract painter, and Tusinski is an Impressionist painter who would fit well in the company of Cezanne or the other French Impressionists.
What holds these two painters and their work together is an idea. In their exhibit statement, they use the French word “fanaux” which means lantern, lighthouse or beacon, as a metaphor for the process of painting. Indeed, artists, no matter their artistic style, often shed light on a subject, or as the statement says, creating art “involves coaxing form from the formless, light from darkness.”
Playfulness with light is a key characteristic of Hank Tusinki’s paintings which are primarily landscapes of the southern French region. It is not surprising to learn that Fanaux is also a neighborhood of the town of Ramatuelle on the French St. Tropez peninsula where Tusinski lived for many years. His paintings take us to southern France. It’s easy to image strolling through the wine vineyards, feeling the warmth of the sun and the breezes, and watching the light change. His painting “Vineyard” is an example of this, as is the light targeting a farmhouse roof in “Sunrise, view from the Kitchen Window, Ferme de Fanaux.” Also intriguing are his two 2016 paintings “Parasol Pine and Wisteria, Sunrise” which vibrate with light and color to the point that they easily emerge as abstracts.
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HTusinski_Sunrise, view from the kitchen window, Ferme des Fanaux_
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HTusinski_Vineyard_
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TMosman_Crazy Free_
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Tim Mosman ’s inks, gouache, and acrylics on paper are also very evocative in their immediately-recognizable abstraction. However they are less grounded in Fanaux, the place, and more in the world of memory and sound and dark-light interactions. As we know, art viewers bring their own experience to any art they view. Mosman’s “Crazy Free” took me not to France, but to China, where I spent a considerable amount of time over an eleven year period. “Crazy Free” is the next step that comes after a master sifu’s Chinese grass calligraphy – delicate and lyrical, yet strong and resilient….much like China itself.
Then Mosman drops the lyrical calligraphed grasses and moves on to blast us with sound. His Notebook series, in particular, brought forth sound along with the light – the sound of an elegant John Coltrane riff, or an Ornette Coleman blast of emotive “free jazz” dissonance. |
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Mosman and Tusinski’s exhibit titled “Fanaux” will be up through April 30, 2018. While you are at the airport to see this exhibit, don’t miss the other galleries and the riches they have to offer. Tucson International Airport Art |
TMosman_Notebook #6_
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