C. Gregory Gummersall

'Abstracted Landscape', National Academy, Palm Springs Museum, Large oil Diptych

1995

C. Gregory Gummersall began his professional art career primarily as a West Coast artist. In the 1990s, Gummersall returned to an 80-acre ranch near Durango, Colorado, which suits his needs for quiet space in which to create art. Influenced by artists such as John Corbett, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Cy Twombly and Richard Diebenkorn, Gummersall’s paintings have an energetically gestural, spontaneous quality. His brushstrokes suggest symbols or signs whose meanings can be sensed but never fully grasped. They are reminiscent of adrenaline-filled quickly drawn graffiti. But unlike the temporary existence of most graffiti, Gummersall’s brushstrokes and use of collage build upon each other to create a sense of memory in the canvases; nothing is erased and through the layers of paint, the history of his marks remains visible. “The advance mystery of making aesthetic sense by working with the puzzled balancing’s, coherent compositions, complementary colors, and surfaced layers into rhythmic shared things of beauty is the reward. My secondary application of ‘ground’ over ‘figure’ illustrates my unusual interest in balancing the spontaneity of ‘chaos’ with the need for ‘order’. It also utilizes the free form of expressionist seemingly random marks with the more minimal ordering via painting out the excess chaos that then forms a new ground. Rhythmic lines, as architectural elements, add to the gestalt.” As an artist, with never-ending creative challenges, he gets easily bored with repetition. In the art business, where repetition sells, Gummersall had concerns that the range of his different series styles might be viewed as immature or unfocused. His friend (and former museum director), Mr. Gerald Nordland, informed him of how greats like Picasso and Matisse also worked in many different style series changes. Coming from such a respected art scholar, the advice was reassuring. His cycling back through the various series over the past 35+ years results in change, interest, and the needed growth of added variety. “My primary objective is to add beauty and expanded awareness to the viewers of my art. Contrary to much of the art world’s Shock Art, I hope that my art communicates on a higher plane and provides a refuge in a troubled world.” Gummersall’s art is in numerous private, corporate and public collections including the Fordham University Museum at Lincoln Center, Federal Reserve Bank Chicago, Palm Springs Art Museum, Deutsche Bank, Toyota, Tucson Museum of Art, ANA Sheraton Hotel in Osaka, Pacific Bank, BMW and Four Seasons among others. Gummersall was also included in the 183rd National Academy Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary American Art in New York.