Books
My life, like any other, has been complicated and whole periods are lost from conscious memory, never told to anyone, not even to myself by myself. Some experiences once lived were allowed to slide off into nothingness because there seemed no reason to have had them to begin with, or to save them to revisit later. I had a sense that memory space is limited, and not a lot that passes through our consciousness is worth keeping. That may have been true, but who was I to make those judgements?
In the late 1960s, while the Western art world seemed to have almost entirely rejected the figure, Alan Feltus began to develop an imagery that was at once classical and strikingly modern, firmly establishing himself as one of the foremost figurative painters of his generation.
In Motherself: an Artist’s Memoir, Feltus reflects back on his life, his childhood in Manhattan during the 1940s and ‘50s, his earliest experiences with art, from the museums in which he sought refuge as a young boy, to the studios of his mothers’ artist friends, in which he found a sense of peace and purpose. He writes with a mix of bitterness and tenderness about the complex relationship he shared with his mother, and about his search to fill the void left by an absent father. He recalls how, aged twenty-eight, in Rome, a single work of art revealed to him a simple notion that would help define his artistic identity and change his work forever.
Feltus’ memoir is an intimate and compelling account of the life of one of America’s great figurative painters.
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ALAN FELTUS is a figurative painter, born in 1943 in Washington, DC. He has been represented by Forum Gallery in New York City since 1976 and has lived near Assisi, in Italy since 1987. He is married to the artist Lani Irwin, also a figurative painter, and they have two sons.
His work can be found in many public collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, the Fralin Museum of Art, VA, the Huntington Museum of Art, WV, the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, MA, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, OK, the Katzen Arts Center, Washington, DC, and the Hudson River Museum, NY.
Motherself: an Artist's Memoir is Feltus' first book.
IMAGES in the book
All images in this publication are in black & white. Please visit the artist's website to see his work in color.
Alan Feltus in his studio, 2023
Photo © Tobias Feltus
Film Production
Documentary
Vicarious Pictures is currently in post-production on a documentary directed by Liz Krause.
Animation
Vicarious Pictures is currently in production on a stop-motion animated film by Joseph Feltus.
