Arresting Art In Salisbury

Jack Piccolo is an advertising man. For nearly 20 years he was an art director at fabled Doyle Dane Bernbach, the most famous and creative advertising agency of the second half of the 20th Century. (When Bill Bernbach died in 1982, Harper’s Magazine said that he influenced American culture and tastes more than any person in the history of the magazine.)

Piccolo joined DDB in 1964 and worked on the taut, terse image-driven advertising produced for Volkswagen, Polaroid and other clients. He learned his craft well, as his lovely paintings now on display at Chaiwalla show.

In 22 glowing yet subdued pieces, Piccolo tells a story or lets the viewer take in an image and make up a story. Just as the great DDB ads told stories with single, compelling images and a few dramatic words.

In “Hot Chocolate on Beach,� a woman in a tightly wound headscarf holds a mug while her other hand is raised. She seems to be talking to the shadowy person on the left. She seems animated even in the still image, all orange and brown with hints of blue.

Lunch – or supper – is about to be made in “Fish Soup,� perhaps on some southern French coast. The fish waits on a board on the left, while a can – the lid open – rests near an almost indistinct can opener. You can feel summer and the sun in the reds and blurred light.

“Egg With Orange� is an austere still life, a little in the spirit if not the technique of Morandi, whose light was anything but blurred. The Umbrian scenes are nice, especially “Umbrian Village� with its arrangement of geometrical orange roofs. A barely discernible red kite sailing in a gorgeous blue sky makes “The Kite� arresting.

There is only one jarring, out-of-place picture. “One’s Company, Two’s a Crowd� is a short screed against the banality of television. But the words laid on the upper half of the paper are themselves banal. The picture recalls Sister Mary Corita Kent, whose quotes and aphorisms were laid on hundreds of prints she created in the tumultuous 1960s and 1970s.

If there is one piece that sums up Piccolo’s art, it is “Purple Chair,� a simple but slightly distorted painting of the eponymous chair. A seat and witness to many stories, the artist seems to say.

Jack Piccolo’s paintings are hanging in Chaiwalla, 1 Main St., Salisbury, through Labor Day. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (860) 435-9758.

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