Daniel Brush: Thinking about Monet
When he was a schoolboy, Daniel Brush took weekend art classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art. After class, he and the other students passed through a room of paintings by Claude Monet, who Brush grew to loathe. Put off by the "pasty oil paint, the sweet colors and the small sizes," he remained firm in his distaste for the Impressionist master until one day he saw an 8 x 10 transparency of a Monet that a collector and friend was considering acquiring. Seeing the light shining through the transparency stunned him and sparked an obsession with the light that Monet captured in oil paint. Thinking about Monet contains 60 of the more than 100 steel sculptures Brush created, all meditations on light. The artist hand-carved the same steel for each palm-sized object, but each one displays distinct properties of color and light. Imbued with a timeless quality and mesmerizing in the intricacy and daring of the fabrication, Brush's objects bear comparison with the work of historical masters. In his lifetime, Brush developed a rigorous and unique aesthetic marked by its intellectual force, mastery of techniques, and an understanding of the scientific properties of materials. His idiosyncratic, contemplative work marks a journey of evolving mastery, and embody a deeply expressive voice in American art.This small, jewel-like book is covered in printed silk cloth, and all the sculptures are reproduced at their original size. The reproductions display Brush's exceptional and unique artistic vision. Nicolas Bos, president of Van Cleef and Arpels, contributes a short forward to the book.