David Rathman at Clementine - New York - Brief Article

Someone once challenged Ernest Hemingway to concoct a narrative in six words, not believing it was possible. Hemingway stepped up to the plate: "For sale: baby shoes, never used." Minneapolis-based artist David Rathman has a similar talent for evoking full-blown scenarios in short order, as evidenced by his recent show of sepia-toned ink drawings, "To Hell with Them Small Towns." He depicts, for instance, a horse in profile, accompanied by the name "CONRAD" crossed out, and "you don't put a name on something you might have to eat." Okay, it's not exactly Hemingway, but it works.

The exhibition's best piece shows a cowboy's silhouette alongside "today's schedule," which consists of the following: get up (11 A.M.), sober up (11-11:30), eat (11:30-noon), work like hell (until 10 P.M.), get drunk (10 P.M.-3 A.M.), beat hell out of them thats got it coming (3-3:15 A.M.), go to bed. Like a successful comedian, Rathman needs impeccable timing to make a joke fly. Now and again, he falters. But when he's on, it's great.

Rathman grew up in a small town but has only been on a horse once. Like most people, he knows about the American West--its hangings, shoot-outs, fighting, wide-open spaces, etc.--thanks to Hollywood and the art of Frederic Remington and Charles Russell. He culls his images from these sources. He steals the text from books and films, too. One piece shows a guy waving his hat in the air to "Come back, you bastards! I was just kidding! A silhouette of an ox appears on a sign: "LOST: 2-ton Langford steer--brown, skiddish, and answers to `Doug.'" The drawings are spare and surprisingly elegant. A little patch of prairie grass here and a dribble of ink there balance delicate compositions that could stand on their own, if they had to.

Part of the pleasure of Rathman's work is that it brings up the tendency to imbue life with cinematic melodrama. As most people know, and especially most Europeans, the American West has a certain glamour. The nitty grit of that imagined life can become an escape from the less exciting challenges of today. Rathman shows a lone ranger meandering off into the sunset: "Pete was right, the ending was all wrong."

COPYRIGHT 2001 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group