CHRISTOPHER BEANE
“When I agreed to write an essay for Beane's book (Beane Flower. Artisan, 2008), at the request of a mutual friend, I had no idea I would be writing about one of the greatest photographers I have ever run across. It was easy enough for me to locate his position in the history of photography and art as a whole. I saw its importance immediately. Such an approach hardly begins to meet the challenge of explaining his work.”
-Curator and Art Historian, Anthony F. Janson
After studying photography at the renowned Rhode Island School of Design, Christopher Beane moved to NYC, where he currently resides. In the mid-1990s, Beane stumbled across and became seduced by the early morning alchemy of the 28th street flower market - he found his unforeseen muse. Imports of both local and foreign became the artist's subject matter for the next several decades. He began by first documenting. Then he slowly started to formulate his own unique fingerprint in the fine art world. Noted curator and art historian, Anthony F. Janson proclaims Beane to be "the love child of Georgia O'Keefe and Robert Mapplethorpe" (Beane Flower. Artisan, 2008). Since finding his inspiration, Beane has devoted years to his subjects, amassing a vast archive of works. He began with his early, effortless, pure black and whites which soon evolved into wonderful color studies that matured into magical mixed media studies. Transitions from his camouflage studies of orchids and exotics have matured into the complex, layered compositions of his Baroquecoco series in which his painted collaged cutouts contrast and disguise the most seductive of pistils and petals. In this series, he challenges the viewer's perspective with rich detail, grandeur and flamboyance. His multiple variations and combinations seem incredulous, yet correct. Abstract movement and gestures evoke the sensuousness found in the natural world. This energy is reminiscent of his past series entitled Orgy, as well as the infinite color spectrum present in his decade-long Ranunculus studies. His Baroquecoco series seems to encapsulate the past and absorb ‘all’ in the post-everything environment of today.
