Allison Schulnik

American, born 1978

Idyllwild

Allison Schulnik (American, born 1978). Idyllwild, 2011. Oil on linen, 110 x 78 inches (279.4 x 198.1 cm). Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; Gift: With Funds Provided by The Mark and Hilarie Moore Family Trust in Memory of Timothy A. Fallon, 2015. © 2011 Allison Schulnik.

© Allison Schulnik

Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.

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© Allison Schulnik

Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.

© Allison Schulnik

Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.

© Allison Schulnik

Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.

Idyllwild, 2011

Artwork Details

Materials

oil on linen

Measurements

support: 110 x 78 inches (279.4 x 198.12 cm)

Collection Buffalo AKG Art Museum

Credit

Gift: With Funds Provided by The Mark and Hilarie Moore Family Trust in Memory of Timothy A. Fallon, 2015

Accession ID

2015:1

The characters Allison Schulnik creates in her clay animations and heavily impastoed, or thickly layered, paintings take on a haunting sense of foreboding evocative of a Shakespearean tragedy. Discomfort and unease is palpable, yet we cannot help but experience their plight from a position of compassion. The people and animals around her—those she knows and others who are only peripherally familiar—inspire Schulnik. “They make their way into my brain and then seem to make a home among my many imagined realities,” she has said. “When I put something in material form, I just hope to capture this otherworldly buffoonery or maybe present a simple earthly moment.” Idyllwild, for instance, is based on a photograph of the artist’s brother and his dog. A weary-looking clown holds an umbrella and cane, and he and his canine companion stare out at the viewer. They are nearly concealed in thick layers of drab green, rusty brown, and shadowy black paint. Yet, from around the figure’s neck hangs a bright blue ribbon tied in a bow—reminding us of the levity within all of us.

Label from Menagerie: Animals on View, March 11–June 4, 2017

Other Works by This Artist