R E V I E W S

    Nall is known both in Europe and the United States for paintings that combine vivid realism and intricate details to convey psychological themes. Often the elegant and the disturbing are found side by side in his surrealistic and symbolic collage paintings.

Patrice Stewart , The Birmingham News

 

Westwood Gallery
568 Broadway, New York, NY 10012    

    Nall, a modern day Renaissance man, has created extraordinary works of art for almost 50 years. A multi-talented fine artist, he has traveled the world, studying diverse cultures and exploring art, architecture and indigenous craft. Although classically trained, Nall is not a conventional artist who follows tradition regarding the use of media, style or subject. He has followed his own path which led him to remote locations in North Africa, India, the Middle East, South America and Mexico, but always brought him back to his roots in Alabama. A recent New York City retrospective exhibition of his work included finely detailed drawings from his “Alice in Wonderland” series, remarkable botanical paintings and prints, complex mosaics, graphite portraits encased in elaborate frames, intricate line engravings and masterful watercolors. In addition to fine art, this exceptional artist’s talents extend to commissions in set and costume design, porcelain, glassware, jewelry, and a recent series of official postage stamps for the principality of Monaco.

       This contemporary artist is inspired by paintings from the 16th century, surrealism, fauvism, impressionism, psychedelic art, Huichol art, Japanese wash drawings and even the geometric forms in Alabama quilts and Mondrian’s compositions. As a young man, Nall spent seven years in Paris where he was greatly influenced by his mentor and friend, Salvador Dali. His artistic and cultural experiences motivated Nall to express himself through traditional and non-traditional media. The combination of Nall’s incredible talent as a draftsman and his creative genius allowed him to produce a diverse body of work ranging from symbolic imagery depicting the dark side of humanity to the beauty found in natural landscapes and botanical subjects. No matter what the subject, his work always leaves the viewer with a memorable impression.

     A native of Troy, Alabama, Nall was a natural talent and showed a predisposition to art and drawing from an early age. He graduated from the University of Alabama with degrees in Art, Political Science and Psychology and his entrance into the art scene began as a student at L’Ecole dés Beaux Arts in Paris. Salvador Dali, under whose guidance Nall studied, advised him to “Draw from life, draw again and again…” Nall has been following this recommendation ever since. However, drawing was only one form of creative expression for Nall; he needed many outlets to express himself completely. His career as a painter and master engraver flourished and he published many of his engravings. Nall also trained apprentices in the fine art of printmaking. Currently, Nall creates his prints and artwork in several studios including the location he purchased in Vence, France.

      Several books have been published on the artist’s work and career, including Nall – Technique and Symbol, by Michael Pastor, the most important collector of contemporary art from Monaco. Written by Alain Renner, art expert of Sotheby’s Monte-Carlo and Paris, the book was launched in conjunction with Nall’s two solo shows in Gstaad, Switzerland and succeeded by a major exhibition of his botanical drawings at the Natural History Museum in Paris. After exhibits in New Orleans, Atlanta, Birmingham, Memphis, Miami and Washington DC, Nall returned to The University of Alabama as an artist in residence. His presence there correlated with his retrospective exhibit hosted by the university. He offered students the opportunity to apprentice at his on-campus studio. Nall was also Artist in residence at Troy University, who sponsored Alabama Art project for four years and awarded him a

     Doctorate Honoris Causa. In the same period of time, he created N.A.L.L. (Nature, Art and Life League) Art Association and the Nall Foundation, both supporting and providing opportunities for visual artists, writers and musicians.

    As a multi-cultural artist, Nall is currently contributing to projects all over the world. In addition to his home in Alabama, he has designed the architecture of his residences in Italy, France and Monaco. In the summer of 2005 Nall created the costumes and set layouts for Puccini’s “La Fanciulla del West” for the debut in Tuscany, Italy. He was commissioned by H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco to create two monumental flower mosaics for the Grimaldi Forum in Monte Carlo. These two large-scale works will be featured on the official Monaco postage stamps in December 2005. Under the guidance of The Birmingham Museum of Art and with the aid of the Alabama State Council on Arts and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Art, Nall organized a traveling exhibition, “Alabama Art”, which includes the work of 13 Alabama Artists. The book, which accompanies this exhibition, published by Black Belt Press, won the Mary Ellen Lopresti ARLIS/Southeast Publishing Award for “Best Art Book” in the Southeastern USA. His two porcelain patterns, “Tuscia’s Roses” and “Mediterranean Gold”, produced by R. Haviland & C. Parlon of Limoges, France, have been exhibited at the Chateau de Bagatelle, Neuilly, France, the Caroussel du Louvres in Paris, as well as several international porcelain fairs in Stuttgart and in New York’s Porcelain Maker’s Fair. The Arts and Crafts Museum in New York City presented his Murano glassware in a group show entitled “Murano Memories”.

      The Head Monk of the Franciscan order for the World commissioned Nall to complete a monumental project representing the 52 Stations of the Cross of Humanity by the summer of 2006. This huge project has garnered worldwide attention and will also include the creation of three large-scale frame installations, all to take place at Saint Francis Basilica in Assisi.

       Nall’s work is in numerous museums and private collections worldwide, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which acquired several of Nall’s line engravings for their permanent collection. His entire series of line engravings is being acquisitioned by the Musée des Beaux Arts, Nice, whose collection includes etchings by Goya, Daumier and Dürer. A traveling museum exhibition of Nall’s botanical work will tour several cities in the United States, organized in collaboration with the Westwood Gallery in New York.

 

 

 

 

Sunbathing With the Masters
On Côte d'Azur, artists from Renoir to Le Corbusier left villas, studios, museums
By LANIE GOODMAN
SPECIAL TO THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
July 11, 2008
Nice, France

      A host of well-known artists working in a variety of media also built homes and ateliers here -- from Le Corbusier to Hans Hartung to Henry Clews. Many have been turned into museums, or in the case of the artist Nall, a working studio open to the public. (Visiting hours are variable or by appointment, see accompanying travel tips.)

    For a glimpse into an active studio, head inland about 20 kilometers to the N.A.L.L. Foundation, located on a nine-acre estate in Vence. Alabama-born painter Nall (born Nall Hollis), spent six years building his home on the ruins of the oldest house in Vence, built in 1605. It's a joyous jumble of styles: a frieze of original ceramic tiles by Matisse line the entrance, the ancient carved wooden doors are from Jaipur and the stained glass window is from a cathedral in Algiers. Every wall and ceiling is ablaze with Nall's paintings and drawings: canvases of "bleeding pansies" -- flowers that seep with Pollock-like drippings; a sober series of black-and-white sparrows; a flashy pop painting (commissioned by Christian Dior) in which giant tubes of lipstick double as the Twin Towers.
Nall, 60, considers himself a spiritual descendent of Niçois symbolist Gustav Adolf Mossa -- a connection he discovered only after moving to the south of France -- and is best known for his combination of the baroque and a Dali-esque surrealism.
The foundation operates an artists' residence for a dozen American students, who are given everything from drawing lessons to advice on how to trim the olive trees in the lavender-scented gardens. "Art should not be separate from life," says Nall. "There must be complete harmony between the two."

 


International Opinion

New York Times : “Nall is one of the most promising artist of the young generation …”

New Orleans States Item : “Southern dolls in their own way astoundingly realistic and disturbingly symbolic.Draws with the precision of Andrew Wyeth, but with a southern gothic scent”.

Washington Star : “Nall, a good craftman of a meticulous kind is exhibing at the Diane Brown Gallery,wonderful metaphorical and autobiographical pencil drawings”.

International Herald Tribune : “… The Riviera is rich in Museums (there are 17 in Nice alone) architecture and art foundations, including the budding Nall Foundation in Vence …”
Joel Stratte McClure

Vogue Hommes : “Nall a le coup de crayon tendre, cruel, humaniste des Artistes de la Renaissance, le “Dürer du XXe siècle”, il fait chanter la vie, jouer les sens, danser la mort …”

CNN International “European Profiles” : “Nall studied under Salvador Dali, numerous travels througout India have added a spiritual dimension to his painting, but his style remains very much his own …” Charles Vepoorteen CNN - Way Press International

Il Gazzettino di Venezia : “Un’ aura inquietante, gotica spira da questo luciferino che cerca la bellezza attraverso la dissacrazione, svela il tarlo delle sfacelo, la minaccia della putrefazione, lo sberleffo dell’artificio … technica magistrale al limite dell’ossessione …”

New Orleans Times Picayune :“… Fans of Fellini will flip out over the drawings by Nall. His presentation of detail is blinding with a sensivity of line quality”.

Art Thèmes - Côte d’Azur - Paris :“… La peinture de Nall est semblable à du feu, terre, ciel, arbres, viandes écorchées, os, pareils à des joyaux broyés, pourtant de profonde matière, gorgée de sang, gonflée de sucs en fermentation crépitante, mais spiritualisée sans effort du fait de sa réalité même transposée par la passion”.

The Huntsville Times :“… at last a native talent appears whose visual genius for the humorous and the grotesque, as well as the pathetic and the terrible, parallels the recognized “Gothic” tradition of Southern literature”.

Figaro Magazine :“… Le regard de Nall comme celui de Picasso vous transperce. Visionnaire, il saisit votre élan de vie dans une sorte d’éternité. Il accompagne votre portrait d’un collier de symboles … secrets, désirs, secrètes pensées, tout apparaît …” Michel Desforges


The Birmingham News :The following is a review by Thomas Pelham Miller formely executive assistant of both the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, and the Closters, in New York City.
“… intensity distilled by a major and maturing talent … We are lucky to watch this genius flower”.

Il Corriere of Roma : “… Una matrice spirituale di stampo klimtiano, un vento sensuale e bruciante, un artificio voluto e esibito : Nall pittore simbolista che attinge ai contenuti dell’inconscio si è orientato nelle sue ultime opere su quello che è stato definito “Nouvel Orientalisme” … in sè une concentrazione di armonie orientali in opposizione alla mancanza di armonia che si verifica in Occidente”.

Arts Actualité magazine : “L’œuvre de Nall : une causa mentalis, combinatoire infinie de l’improbable …… Si l’habilité graphique de Nall force l’admiration, il n’y a là que matière à servir un dessein plus vaste, empreint d’un certain mysticisme qui ne peut s’affirmer que dans la mesure où l’on comprend que le dessin n’est dans l’œuvre qu’un passage … L’œuvre de Nall est puissante, imaginative, tout autant emplie de sensualité, de tragédie que de connotations ludiques”. Patrice de La Perrière

Forum Artis : “Le sue visioni fantastiche, che risentono della influenza orientale, sono riportate sulla tela con freschezza immediata. Le figure, dall’espressività realistico-emblematica, che recitano là immobili, sul vasto teatro della vita, inducono ad addentrarci nella grande scena del mistero, inteso nei suoi significati esistenziali”.

L’Orient du Jour, Beyrouth, Liban :“… A partir du 25 juin, le peintre américain Nall exposera à Dar El Fan, de superbes dessins, des gravures minutieusement ciselées et des aquarelles richement colorées qui étonneront le “Tout Beyrouth”.

Nice Matin :“…Etranges poupées aux caractéristiques de l’être humain, capables de vivre, de faire l’amour et de mourir …La perfection de sa technique rappelle les grands maîtres du XVIe siècle. L’espace est magnifiquement utilisé …”

André Villers, photographe :“ … sans les artifices et autres ruses dont abusent les hyperéalistes, saisir, de l’œil, ses portraits imaginaires … Il nous montre du doigt et en un tour de main des êtres qui se mordent les doigts de mains mortes. Photo-gravure ? Rétro-néo ?

Jacques Lepage, critique d’art : “A propos de la “Trilogie” de Nall. “Accumulation de morts, la vie s’établit dans la dévastation. La pierre, comme l’arbre, comme l’homme est rongée par le temps.”

Daniel Biga, poète :“ … Le Grand Manque éveillant la Forme Marcheur, Guerrier, Nomade, Nall, Berger des couleurs jamais je n’ai vu lieu aussi peuplé que le désert et des traits, où le sable érode l’acide, la poussière, jamais je n’ai vu terre aussi fertile que cette aridité le vent, grave l’immense plaque, grande tarte dorée …”
The Irish Times :  « Charity auction features Nall sculpture and Bono painting… »

Montgomery Progress: « …Nall became famous, and he turned that fame around to support and educate other artists, including those from Alabama…
…Nall said he hopes that byond getting exposure for Alabama artists, he hoped also to change the opinion of the state in the eyes of the rest of the nation, even the world… »

L.A. Times : « GALILEO GALILEI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT - Nall paints in France, sculpts in Italy and create mosaics in Morocco. The display, wich runs through 2008, includes bronze sculptures « Peace France » and « Wounded Dove », images from his « Stations of the the Cross » series, and the faux mosaics. The exhibit continues at the Basillica of Assisis, 172 miles away. Delta Airlines started direct Flights to Pisa from New York on June 1… »

 

 
 

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TIME MAGAZINE
Peace Demo: On a Wing and a Prayer
An Alabamian takes liberties with Assisi's hallowed basilica — in the name of peace

Posted Saturday, Aug 19, 2006
    The basilica of St. Francis in Assisi has survived the Black Death, endless squabbles with the Perugians down the road, and an earthquake in 1997. It's a sacred spot, and thus it's a bit disconcerting to see a sculpture of a dove the size of a dinosaur perched just outside its main entrance. The bird stares at visitors with a single eye; its other appears to have been torn out, just as one foot is mangled. In the courtyard in front of the church are dozens more bird sculptures, life-size this time and each mounted on a pole. A group of bushes amid them spells out the word pax.

    This is but one small part of an art exhibition showing continuously this summer here in Assisi; in Pietrasanta, Italy; Monaco; Menton, France; and, uh, Mobile, Alabama. And it doesn't stop with the birds. In the basilica's lower courtyard, 52 photomontages and paintings fill the porticoes. These icons mostly depict
undisputed plagues of the human condition: slavery, genocide, chemical spills; more confounding are panels such as the ones devoted to outsourcing — showing people grinding up parts of their bodies — and women's rights, in which lipsticks recall the World Trade Center's Twin Towers.  The various installations, called "Violata Pax" (Wounded Peace), are the brainchild of Nall, a 58-year-old artist born in Troy, Alabama. Nall, whose real name is Fred Hollis, insists that mankind is "in a state of wounded peace," and that his art is a message of peace he hopes will fly back to the U.S. If the symbolism of the wounded dove seems stunningly literal-minded, that's because it is. Obviousness, however, is not exactly unknown in religious art. A quick peek inside the basilica serves as a reminder that St. Francis himself preached to the birds — inspiration enough for the great fresco painter Giotto, so why deny the subject to Nall? But the bigger question is: How did an outlandish Alabamian who studied with Salvador Dalí — and who's not even Catholic! — manage to get his works displayed in some of the most venerated venues in Italy, where art is religion and vice versa? Part of the answer is Nall himself; he is tireless and oh-so-eager-to-please. His southern twang and oversize hospitality work in the Old World as well as the New, and his wife, Tuscia, could charm the sandals off a monk. They've cultivated powerful people in Monaco, where they live part of the year — including Prince Albert — and in the Italian art world. Another part of the answer — as hinted by some in the Nall entourage — may be in the politics of the Roman Catholic Church. Father Vincenzo Coli, the custodian of the basilica, says he was attracted to Nall's work because it depicts "the limits, the faults of mankind ... Upon looking one feels shame." But Coli may have reason to use art to push a political message. The Franciscans have a long-standing tradition of left-wing activism, which does not sit well with conservative Pope Benedict. Indeed, in November, Benedict published a decree that put the Franciscans under the direction of bishops and a papal overseer, removing an autonomy they had enjoyed since 1969. Art, in this line of argument, becomes a relatively unimpeachable weapon aimed at the Vatican. One flaw with that theory is that much of Nall's art isn't easily construed as political. The icons contain so many symbols — cockroaches, flowers, pomegranates, skulls — that they could mean just about anything. For the most part, they amount to critical depictions of human behavior that the Vatican would likely criticize too — particularly the ones devoted to birth control and abortion. Nall insists that he's not holier than us; the icons are "postcards from my past," he explains. "Everything in those works is something from my own life, or the stories of the friends I've painted." Art snobs may find it vulgar, but the Christian message is supposed to be universal; who cares if this time the vernacular is borrowed from a 12-step program?

    Maybe the truth is that the Mediterranean mind-set is not so far from Alabama as one might think. After all, as Nall points out, the original European settlers of America's southeast were French and Spanish. The line between European sacred art and Bible-belt kitsch is a fine one — Nall's unique accomplishment may be that he's erased it.

 

 
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