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Audrey Ushenko (born in 1945) is an American realist figurative painter.〔Eunice Agar, “Audrey Ushenko,” American Artist Magazine, March 1987, 51(536), 42.〕 She was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and has a daughter named Emily. She currently lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana where she is a faculty member at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. At this university she teaches figure drawing, advanced painting, and advanced art history classes.〔Audrey Ushenko, Ph.D., Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne, 2013, accessed April 16, 2013, http://new.ipfw.edu/departments/cvpa/depts/fine-arts/about/bios/ushenko.html.〕 Audrey Ushenko received her B.A. in English literature (1965) from Indiana University, a painting certification from the Art Institute of Chicago (1964), an M.A. in painting from Northwestern University (1967), and a doctoral degree in art history from Northwestern University (1978).〔Audrey Ushenko: Resume, Denise Bibro of Fine Arts Incorporated, accessed March 29, 2013, http://www.denisebibrofineart.com/exhibition/view/2019.〕 Her background in English literature has allowed her to explore this particular territory in her art.〔Eunice Agar, “Audrey Ushenko,” American Artist Magazine, March 1987, 51(536), 42.〕 She has had 22 solo shows, participates in many group exhibitions including numerous shows at the National Academy of Design, and has received numerous distinctions and awards. ==Motif== Greek mythology, seventeenth and eighteenth century images, English literature, and everyday social interactions. Her preferred medium is oil painting although she also excels in drawing and watercolor.〔Eunice Agar, “Audrey Ushenko,” American Artist Magazine, March 1987, 51(536), 42, 45.〕 Ushenko has been praised for her keen attention to detail and brushstroke, both of which enhance her images by bringing to life the figures and settings on her canvases.〔Audrey Ushenko: Fete Champetre, Denise Bibro of Fine Arts Incorporated, 2011, accessed March 29, 2013, http://www.denisebibrofineart.com/exhibition/view/2019.〕 She manipulates light and shadow, which lends her work an impressionist style〔Gerrit Henry, “Audrey Ushenko at Denise Bibro,” Art in America, May, 1999, 160.〕 and she incorporates both warm and dark hues.〔Audrey Ushenko: Recent Works, Denise Bibro Fine Art Incorporated, accessed March 8, 2013, http://www.denisebibrofineart.com/exhibition/view/1135.〕 Her use of color makes the work appear light and quirky at first, but as the viewer studies her paintings a darker edge of sadness makes itself known.〔“Ushenko to Speak on ‘Iconic Art’ in First VACI Lecture”, The Chautauquan Daily, June 26, 2012.〕 Ushenko uses contrasts of color and texture to convey works so vivid they elicit thoughts of fantasy, while simultaneously retaining a crisp reality in her oil paintings.〔Audrey Ushenko: Fete Champetre, Denise Bibro of Fine Arts Incorporated, 2011, accessed March 29, 2013, http://www.denisebibrofineart.com/exhibition/view/2019.〕 Reviewer Gerrit Henry proclaimed Ushenko “a master chronicler of realities small and large,” and she enlivens even inanimate objects.〔Gerrit Henry, “Audrey Ushenko at Denise Bibro,” Art in America, March 2003, 122〕 Ushenko sometimes uses herself as a model, as do many artists; she likewise claims that this is mostly out of convenience, not autobiography.〔Eunice Agar, “Audrey Ushenko,” American Artist Magazine, March 1987, 51(536), 44.〕 She has also painted figural groups, often in their authentic surroundings, but with a twist.〔Work of IPFW Professor to be Featured in Prestigious New York Exhibition, Indiana University Home Pages, accessed March 10, 2013, http://homepages.indiana.edu/web/page/normal/13100.html.〕 In them, Ushenko explores the nature of social interaction through her relationship to the natural and constructed worlds, but also by questioning their relationships.〔Gerrit Henry, “Audrey Ushenko at Denise Bibro,” Art in America, May, 1999, 161.〕 Her oil paintings pay homage to humans as observers and allow viewers to witness the many nuances of everyday sights; then, Ushenko’s work can seem to be unpredictable.〔Audrey Ushenko: Fete Champetre, Denise Bibro of Fine Arts Incorporated, 2011, accessed March 29, 2013, http://www.denisebibrofineart.com/exhibition/view/2019.〕 In particular, she is known for “juxtaposing people, creatures and objects that you may not expect to be nearby or you would not have noticed otherwise.”〔Audrey Ushenko: Fete Champetre, Denise Bibro of Fine Arts Incorporated, 2011, accessed March 29, 2013, http://www.denisebibrofineart.com/exhibition/view/2019.〕 She routinely paints the same model in related positions, although they often contrast; for example, one model may be portrayed in shade and the other in full sunlight, which subtly reveals a sense of duality and dichotomy.〔Eunice Agar, “Audrey Ushenko,” American Artist Magazine, March 1987, 51(536), 45.〕 In many of Ushenko’s paintings, something appears to have just happened or is just about to occur.〔Gerrit Henry, “Audrey Ushenko at Denise Bibro,” Art in America, March 2003, 123.〕 While Audrey Ushenko often makes ordinary events appear extraordinary, some works are less celebratory. This occurs in the process of painting because the meanings of a work develops as she paints, rather than being determined from the outset.〔Eunice Agar, “Audrey Ushenko,” American Artist Magazine, March 1987, 51(536), 45.〕 In Vanitas VIII for example, there appear to be five images of Ushenko in one room. This seems to be a comment on the multiple faces that each person has and displays, often in a single day.〔Gerrit Henry, “Audrey Ushenko at Denise Bibro,” Art in America, January, 1994, 105.〕 In her painting at the Duchossois Center for Advanced Medicine at the University of Chicago Hospitals, she was so inspired by the “magnitude of the ongoing human drama being quietly played out day after day”〔Easton, John, “Artist Immortalizes Atrium at University of Chicago Hospitals,” The University of Chicago Medicine, January 5, 2006, accessed March 10, 2013, http://www.uchospitals.edu/news/2006/20060105-atrium.html.〕 in the hospital that she wanted to create a work to display it. Patients and staff were able to watch Ushenko paint and many were incorporated into the three-story monument.〔Easton, John, “Artist Immortalizes Atrium at University of Chicago Hospitals,” The University of Chicago Medicine, January 5, 2006, accessed March 10, 2013, http://www.uchospitals.edu/news/2006/20060105-atrium.html.〕 In Perseus and Medusa II she accurately depicts this ancient myth. In this myth, Perseus was sent by King Polydectes to bring him the head of Medusa in order to remove Perseus from his mother Danae’s side so the king could make her his wife. This mission was particularly dangerous because anyone who looked into Medusa’s face was said to turn to stone. Medusa was one of three sisters but she was the only mortal one. The sisters were originally gorgeous maidens but because of Poseidon’s profound obsession with her, to which she did not return the feelings, he turned her and her sisters into monsters with live snakes covering their heads instead of hair. Perseus, with the help of Athena and Hermes, used his mirrored shield to see Medusa’s reflection without being turned to stone and therefore successfully cut off her head.〔"The Myth og Perseus and Medusa," Greek Myths and Greek Mythology, 2013, accessed April 23, 2013, http://www.greekmyths-greekmythology.com/myth-perseus-and-medusa/〕 This oil painting very clearly shows Perseus holding Medusa’s newly removed head before returning it to the king. Ushenko does an excellent job with giving a very lifelike demonstration of Perseus and Medusa, and the face of Medusa can be recognized as Ushenko’s very own. This work is part of Rowan University’s (Glassboro, New Jersey) collection. While Ushenko is known for her figural paintings, she is also quite proficient at landscapes. In Windy Autumn she allows a little bit of an inside look at her own home. This painting was done from the rooftop of her house, overlooking her street where the viewer can see her car parked in the driveway. She instills beauty into such an ordinary sight by capturing all of the nuances of the color-changing treetops and surrounding homes. This neighborhood appears cozy yet very much alive considering the well-kept lawns and helicopters in the sky. Ushenko is still able to convey a sense of vivacity in her art even without figures in her paintings.〔"Audrey Ushenko, WIndy Autumn," Denise Bibro Fine Arts Incorporated, 2002, accessed April 23, 2013, http://www.denisebibrofineart.com/artist/workview/949/7055〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Audrey Ushenko」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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