2007.021

Foster, Robert

Gift

Courtesy of Robert Foster.

2007 - 2007

Date: 2007-2007

Notes: Text from Hoboken Historical Museum Newsletter, Nov.-Dec. 2007. Frank Hanavan: Part of the Landscape This summer, painter Frank Hanavan and his easel have been nearly as ubiquitous as the Mr. Softee ice cream truck around the neighborhoods of Hoboken. This Jersey City based artist usually divides his time between Hudson County and New York City, but he spent the bulk of his summer painting scenes of Hoboken for his second show at the Hoboken Historical Museum in four years. In the practice of plein air artists, Hanavan prefers to paint outdoors, in front of—almost a part of—the landscapes he’s been fascinated by for almost two decades. Describing his style as representational realism, his acrylic canvases evoke both the Impressionists’ fascination with the interplay of light and shadow as well as the Photorealists’ ability to capture a scene’s details, especially the reflections on the glass and metal surfaces in an urban setting. Nearly two dozen of the artist’s latest paintings will be on display at the Hoboken Historical Museum in an exhibit entitled Frank Hanavan: Part of the Landscape, in the Upper Gallery. The exhibit opens with a reception on Sunday, November 11, from 2 – 5 p.m. and will remain on view through December 23. Hanavan’s paintings are prominently displayed in many businesses and homes around Hoboken, which enables his fans to see how his work has evolved since the Buffalo native landed in Hoboken in 1990. The Museum used a dozen as illustrations in its 2005 calendar, and prints of his work were a popular gift for large donors that year. A lot of the new paintings in this exhibition, Hanavan says, “are on broadly rectangular canvases, almost a cinematic aspect ratio. This reflects my changing sensibilities about how to best describe a landscape subject.” He modestly gives more credit to Hoboken’s unique character than he does to his own talent. “I try to paint the subject just as it appears and in no way do I try to alter the appearance of the subject,” he says, explaining representational realism. “If the subject looks good in the painting, it is mostly due to the fact that the subject already looked good in real life.” A fan of Hoboken’s sidewalk culture, Hanavan says, “it’s a friendlier vibe than you have in New York. I’ve gotten to know scores of Hobokenites through painting in various Hoboken locales over and over through the years.” Original or Copy: Digital copy Status: OK Status By: dw Status Date: 2009-06-23