The Rural We: Michael Gallagher
The artist's collection of plein air paintings on display at Gallery and Goods evokes his contemplation of the pandemic.
Michael Gallagher is regarded as one of the foremost conservators of Old Master paintings working in the world today. He has conserved masterpieces by artists as such as Botticelli, Rubens, Titian and Velazquez, and since 2005 has led the prestigious department of painting conservation at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. He Is also a painter himself, and since the shutdown, has been doing a lot of painting at his home in Clinton Corners, New York. A collection of 51 plein air paintings that he created entirely between March and June of this year are on display at Gallery and Goods in Pine Plains, New York. “Finding the Light: Painting During the Pandemic, March-June 2020” will run through Labor Day weekend.
I was born and educated in the UK, and first came to America as a fellow at the Getty Museum. There followed jobs at museums in Fort Worth, Berlin, and Edinburgh, before coming to the Met in 2005 to be in charge of painting conservation there.
My husband and I discovered Clinton Corners in 2011. It was early May, with perfect clear blue sky, and no traffic on the road. We bought the first house we looked at. I love the landscape, the people, and most of the time, the weather. I don’t think I could live in the city full time.
My practice has been to do plein air. Since we moved here, I’d done a lot more painting, and I really enjoyed making the weekend different from the working week. But with the lockdown, I’ve been able to be around the landscape every day, and have time to catch things as they change.
Life right now has piled one awful thing on top of another, and seeing nature do its thing — there’s something very moving about that. When I’m painting, it’s really the only thing I’m thinking about. That has been a positive aspect of the lockdown and a real gift, a savior at times when you think stuff just can’t get any worse.
Friends who follow my Instagram feed have said that this last group of paintings is different from my usual work. The practices of my paintings and the freedom of handling have changed. I’m using a more limited palette. The discipline of exploring a full range of color with a limited palette is a good one. It makes me conscious of color in a different way. In a number of the pictures in the show, the brushwork is very lively. Also, I feel like I managed to stop and call the painting finished in time. The biggest kick I get is when I’m in the headspace where I’m totally absorbed in what I’m doing. I put out the picture to dry, come back, and it’s like someone else painted it.
We met the owners of Gallery and Goods when we went in to buy a vase by one of them, Josh Nathanson. I asked if they were interested in exhibiting local work, and they said yes. It’s a glorious space – it’s a former church —and the light is magical. It seems to really activate the paintings.
When I first started selling my paintings, I didn’t like to see any of them go. Now I think, what is the point of putting these things away in the basement? I’m happy if someone wants to live with my painting — and works of art need an audience.
