February 01, 2005

Robert Tracy
Modern Master
Again, my favorite living artist.
Marvin Steel


What is it about Steel's Art that I love? Everything. In particular, his unbounded imagination that touches me personally. And his mastery of technique is a pleasure to behold. There's a lot in his work. Just look around his paintings, and see what he sees. (Yes, that's a lightning strike in the sky in this one.) See, his symbols are realistic, not symbolism for the sake of symbolism, like much that one sees in say Dali's work. The overwhelming feeling I get from Steel's work is a world that holds one's interest. Beyond his overall skill in composition, color harmony, human anatomy--he knows all this, but he goes beyond technical skill. He deals in details. Imagine "The Gold Diggers" without the lightning strike. He knows what to include, and I happen to know from conversations with him, what to omit--this toughness of knowing what to omit is, in my own experience, the hardest thing an artist has to choose. Marvin Steel's paintings exhibit the mark of all the greatness of a real artist.