Tony Scherman: When a Flower is Cut

Together with the Estate of Tony Scherman, Nicholas Metivier Gallery is honoured to present When a Flower is Cut, our first solo exhibition and the first exhibition since Scherman’s passing. The exhibition will showcase important paintings and drawings from the last three decades of Scherman’s career, many of which are from his personal collection and on view for the first time.

Adopting the difficult medium of encaustic painting early on in a career that spanned over five decades, Tony Scherman was lauded for his remarkable facility with the ancient medium and for positioning it firmly within the context of contemporary art. The dynamic process involves mixing melted wax with oil paint and pigment and applying it rapidly onto a dry surface in layers.

The cutting of a flower not only kills it, but its slow death gives us pleasure or comfort. When a flower is cut, it not only becomes a sign signifying love, the hearth, death, but becomes sacred in its assignation. 

 

- Tony Scherman

Rarely exhibited but an immensely important facet of Scherman’s practice were his drawings. Often favouring waxed butcher’s paper, Scherman relinquished control over conscious thought when making his drawings. His hand and eye moved together in synchronicity and in ways beyond reason and rationale.