Willard Lustenader
Cutouts with Bottles II 2004
Oil on canvas, framed.
Value: $4,800
Starting Bid: Coming Soon

Wiliam Lustenader was born in Rochester, NY in 1955.  He received a BA in art history from Vassar in 1979 and an MA from the Courtauld Institute in London, focusing on 17th century Italian art.  After the completion of his studies, he became a full-time painter.  His work is predominantly realist in nature: they are, in his own words, “quiet envelopes for reflection, not merely arrangements.”  He began his series of cut-out still life paintings four years ago: they show an interest in early modernist collage and post war abstract color field painting with contemporary representational language.  Lustenader explains, “I strive for a lustrous glow that speaks to the seductive history of the painted surface, but remains distant from any attempt at a pure record of observation.  The shift of manipulated planes and edges create a constant push/pull effect to lure the viewer into a mental space of their own design.  Hopefully, the result is a simultaneous objective/subjective experience within what is essentially a traditional still life ‘format’ based on the observation of objects in light, be it natural or artificial.”