Mandelbaum Raw Drawings

Do you need to know anything about an artist before you view their work? No

Do you believe that art by itself tells you all there is to know? Yes

I don't know about you, but when I come across something that ignites my interest, then I attempt to check it out. If I like what I see, even a glimpse of it, before reading the small text, I head my way to the museum or gallery to check out the art that intrigued me. Such as in the case with Stéphane Mandelbaum's current exhibit at the Drawing Center in SoHo. I caught a brief glance through the center's website which prompted me to check out the fantastic works on paper by Mandelbaum.
Upon entering the gallery, I was taken by a wave of extreme talent projecting and even leaping to the viewer through the late artist's skilled work. The drawings of varying sizes, some coming across as doodles, while others are fully and compositionally presented, showcase an active mind of an artist who very much loved to draw. You can see the artist's hand and definitely the mind at work here. A clear connection of the vast emotions of this artist who seemed to bring in his work a deep passion for a difficult past along with depiction of literary and art figures (like poet Arthur Rimbaud, Francis Bacon and his lover George Dyer, and Japanese writer Yukio Mishima) whom he relates to. In fact, oddly enough Mandelbaum almost foretold his morbid killing, in such he seemed to connect and draw romantic figures that had fallen to a similar tragic death at earlier periods in time. Could it be that he had an extra sensory? I had to come to realize after studies about prominent artists, that those who possess an intrinsic talent / genius have a 6th sense ability. A true artist not only sees, imagines and envisions what is ahead of them but somehow can blur the lines towards the supernatural. How is this possible? Why do true artists born with extreme talent seem to edge on that? What makes artists more receptive to this extra sensory experience? I baffle myself with such mysterious questions that go beyond the art and push the boundaries towards the mystical, the unreal that crosses the real. The works on paper, some drawing with graphite, and some in ink open up a window to peep into the mind of an artist who plays with language as if it is fine art and pushes the viewer to confront the ugly, the untold and the hurt that lies deep in the groin. In such, cinema, art, text, history, language and even poetry play Russian roulette in Mandelbaum's work. One minute, it's the expression that kills you, another it's the brutality of a text, a word, a slice of pornography mixed with comics. Cartoonish renderings that edge towards masterful drawings - it's all thrown in one's face, all of it! Everything that occupies the mind of Mandelbaum lays there raw ahead of us presented on the most fragile of all mediums, paper. The harshness and darkness of graphite and ink against the purity and fragility of white paper amalgamate to divulge stories no one dares to speak of. So was the artist: strong, honest and raw but sensitive, fragile, emotional and bombarded with disarray that occupies the mind. We can say, it was a blessing he was a draftsman - an expressionist artist, where clearly art became a tool for him to jot down his thoughts, all of it , the good, the bad and the ugly on paper. Jot it down, write it down, draw it, let it come out of you and document you, your identity. The totality of what occupies the mind of Mandelbaum's world is perfectly presented in this magnificent exhibition that is brave, daring but telling of how pain can make one paint and draw on what makes one distinctive.

Exhibit is ongoing through Feb 18 - Link: https://drawingcenter.org/exhi...