Russell FitzGerald, Dark Sleeper, 1973 (BG3066). Photo: Rachel Topham Photography
Physical Description
- Medium
- ink, conte, gouache
- Support
- masonite
- Dimensions
- 60.7 cm 60.7 cm 9.5 cm (Object)
- Object Description
- Russell FitzGerald had the idea for a suite of thirty male nudes as far back as winter 1962. There are many surviving tracings, drawings and paintings, allowing us to chart the development of specific compositions over time. While sketches were done from life, the figures evolved over the years to become more stylized, drawn from FitzGerald’s mind’s eye; and while they are not portraits, we know the names of some of the models: brothers Carl and George Brown, Edward Barconey, Cory Martin, Jaimie, Victor, Jimmy… Moving to Vancouver in 1970 with Dora and the twins was a form of “withdrawal and decathexis,” removing him from his heroin habit but also from the Black men and thriving Black culture he loved. Throughout his eight years in Vancouver, he mourned his deep relationship with Harold Reynolds and finished at least twenty-five painted Black male nudes, which came to be called the Dark Sleepers. The paintings carry the weight of his nostalgia for New York and longing for its creative inspiration and erotic possibilities. Vancouver offered a far more quiet and domestic life – which he continued to resist – and his struggle with alcohol and mental illness only intensified.
-Jon Davies, 2024
History
- Collection
- Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery Permanent Collection
- Credit Line
- Gift of Dora FitzGerald, 2008
- Related Exhibitions
- That Directionless Light of the Future: Rediscovering Russell FitzGerald
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