Bill Stewart

Inventive, humorous, mysterious, funky, and fanciful are a few of the many colorful adjectives used to describe Stewart’s work. As critics have long noted, his totemic (usually black and white) figures, recall archaeological and mythological associations with primitive cultures. At same time, these moody works reflect contemporary trends in art, as well as current social/cultural interests in body decoration, whether piercing, tattooing or scarification. If these ‘primitive’ works seem to emerge from a darkened cavern within the artist’s imagination, other images evoke cartoon-like landscapes – utilizing brilliant color, expressive forms, and whimsical characters that would feel at home in the circuses and ‘fun-zones’ of our youth, or with The Beatles in The Yellow Submarine, characterize this playful work.

Stewart’s sculpture draws from both popular and primitive cultures. They also reflect the artist’s immersion in some of the most interesting, if lesser known, art historical movements of the twentieth-century. The brilliant palettes and expressive, distorted forms of Karel Appel and the CoBrA group come to mind. And, certainly, they share a common interest in folk art, children’s art and primitive art. Closer to home, is the so-called Bay Area ‘Funk Art’ movement of the 1960s’ humorous, pop-oriented, and irreverent in spirit.

Grant Holcomb, Director
Memorial Art Gallery/University of Rochester