"Family Dance" Post-Modern Watercolor by Joan Carl Strauss

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About the Item

Joan Carl Strauss is a remarkable artist. Each work, from her studies to the final design of her sculptures, is an enchanting visual experience that allows us to savor her creative genius for using space, form, and movement to deliver an intimate narrative. As a universal language, art communicates profound stories and stunning aesthetics through various media. Here, Strauss regales us with an original, hand-signed watercolor with semi-abstract cubist overtones. A dance scene appears. The work evokes continuous movement, a whirlpool. Two adults and a child hold each other in a circle. Perhaps parents and their young child celebrating a joyous moment. The energy is magnificently rendered. Nothing is ordinary about this work. It results from creative imagination, geometric precision, aesthetic design, and passionate emotion. Joan Carl Strauss carefully planned and executed the process. The orchestrated fragmentation, the distinctive attitude of the figures, the tension of their bodies, and the depicted verticality seem to defy all gravity. The figures attract and almost repel each other in a three-way tango or dance, expressing words and feelings in curves, angles, and power. The contours are recognizable, underlining primary geometric shapes. The piece consciously refrains from using vibrant hues, favoring instead a monochromatic palette, giving the effect of a pencil study. When confronted with a monochrome watercolor, the viewer instinctively looks for the charged narrative in the seemingly sober palette. Ranging from the darkest black to the lightest gray, the 3-color palette, with its interplay of white, creates visual depth and contrast, reinforcing the characters' presence and expressions on paper. There is an intriguing contrast between the monotony of the colors and the intense joy that bursts forth in this dancing whirlwind. Consider the incredible beauty of the faces, so minimally defined, the epitome of purity. Strauss offers a stimulating dialogue between form and content, color and mood, reality and abstraction. This family dancing, semi-abstract and elongated, geometric yet fluid, will forever embody the magical manifestation of art in its most complex and beautiful form. Joan Strauss Carl was a Los Angeles artist, teacher, and humanitarian activist. She served as the past president of the Los Angeles Art Association and has left behind a formidable body of work and commissions in private collections, museums, and houses of worship. A prolific sculptor and painter, she studied art in Cleveland and at the Art Institute of Chicago before journeying to the West. Her decision proved wise as she quickly had six one-person shows and consistently received invitations to significant juried exhibitions from San Francisco to San Diego. As a sculptor, she worked in various mediums, including bronze, terracotta, stone, and wood.

Creator:
Joan Carl Strauss (1926 - 2021, American)
Dimensions:
Height: 28.25 in (71.76 cm)Width: 20.5 in (52.07 cm)Depth: 0.5 in (1.27 cm)
Medium:
Watercolor
Movement & Style:
Post-Modern
Period:
1960-1969
Condition:
New framing.
Gallery Location:
Pasadena, CA
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU654314387862