Nan Grand-Jean: Elemental Optimist

Nan Grand-Jean’s paintings are inspired by a feeling of inner psychic intensity. In true mystical fashion, she reports that these powerful inner sensations seem to suffuse the world around her. The world itself, she says, "seems to breathe." Experiences like these are not easy to represent in paint yet there have been many who have tried, from Marc Chagall to Agnes Martin. As these two examples show, there are many paths to this end, both figurative and abstract. Grand-Jean’s approach is a cross between the two insofar as her work is not representational per se, but neither is it wholly abstract. Her compositions are, in fact, the direct result of actions in the real world, the scattering of leaves, the breaking of glass or the splattering of water. Like her muse John Cage, she embraces the chance actions of matter as it transforms through time. Attuned to the subtle textures of earth, water, air, and light, Grand-Jean is, in a sense, a profound realist, creating art from the most basic elements of experience. Her work is sensual, generous, and optimistic.

Lawrence Rinder
Dean of Graduate Studies at CCA
Adjunct Curator of Contemporary Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art
Winner of National Art Critics Award in 2006 for curatorial excellence