ABOUT: GEORGE NISTA
The human figure is to me the richest subject for the artist. Its potential for expression and its complexity seem to me an inexhaustible subject for art. Grace, poise, the flowing line--these mark the elegant human body. Somehow, I think, the means to express the highest human values lie herein. This is the goal. The pleasure is in the pursuit.
There have been many contributors to my development. They have been varied and wide-ranging, encompassing both Western and Eastern sources. Sculpture Greek and Roman, and of the Renaissance and Baroque masters, to Japanese painting and architecture, ikebana and bonsai have all been a part of it. I look for order. I look for feeling. I look to see how both are passionately expressed. I have been drawn to things which I would like to be able to do. All of that, I think, has been absorbed and helps inform my work.
Admittedly, I am not particularly attracted to a perceptually based rendition of the physical world -- so-called “Realism”. I work with an “Ideal”, what I think a fundamental concept underlying the percept. Through form, expressive gesture, and tight composition, I want to find moments of insight into the human condition.
Underlying my work is a consideration of the idea of human potential: its achievement, or non-achievement. What does it mean to err, to misstep, not to see? Is what seems like unlimited possibility reachable, either by effort or by destiny? The angel in Western literature and art serves as metaphor in these ruminations. I think of the angelic (closure, perfection) as both beyond and within. Milton and Dante are sources which have helped to generate the imagery of the last couple of years. The ‘Elements’ series comes from Plato. Fire, Earth, Air, and Water are the basic building blocks which comprise the universe. In combination, they make up all matter. As metaphors however, it seemed to me they could represent those fundamental human drives, states of mind which combine and recombine to make us who we are.
This is what initially attracted me in art a long time ago. I have explored many other avenues. This is what I keep coming back to.
There have been many contributors to my development. They have been varied and wide-ranging, encompassing both Western and Eastern sources. Sculpture Greek and Roman, and of the Renaissance and Baroque masters, to Japanese painting and architecture, ikebana and bonsai have all been a part of it. I look for order. I look for feeling. I look to see how both are passionately expressed. I have been drawn to things which I would like to be able to do. All of that, I think, has been absorbed and helps inform my work.
Admittedly, I am not particularly attracted to a perceptually based rendition of the physical world -- so-called “Realism”. I work with an “Ideal”, what I think a fundamental concept underlying the percept. Through form, expressive gesture, and tight composition, I want to find moments of insight into the human condition.
Underlying my work is a consideration of the idea of human potential: its achievement, or non-achievement. What does it mean to err, to misstep, not to see? Is what seems like unlimited possibility reachable, either by effort or by destiny? The angel in Western literature and art serves as metaphor in these ruminations. I think of the angelic (closure, perfection) as both beyond and within. Milton and Dante are sources which have helped to generate the imagery of the last couple of years. The ‘Elements’ series comes from Plato. Fire, Earth, Air, and Water are the basic building blocks which comprise the universe. In combination, they make up all matter. As metaphors however, it seemed to me they could represent those fundamental human drives, states of mind which combine and recombine to make us who we are.
This is what initially attracted me in art a long time ago. I have explored many other avenues. This is what I keep coming back to.
