Vermont artist Helen Shulman once said, “I paint to keep Psyche happy.” As a psychotherapist, Shulman works to ease the soul and psyche of others, but with her paintings she soothes her own internal state. One would be remiss to categorize Shulman’s paintings with other artists who subject the public to self-indulgent, narcissistic creative endeavors. Such painters claim “art is therapy”, by which we mean art is their therapy and we sould pay attention to them because, put simply, they want attention. Shulman offers the viewer a substance far greater. As she says, “While the act of painting is an entirely private affair, the result isn’t.”

Helen Shulman: A Catalog of Recent Paintings features Ric Kasini Kadour’s essay “Helen Shulman’s Lyrical Abstrations” in which he documents the artist’s expert use of visual language to make deeply personal painting universally accessible. The essay also explores the the artist’s work as a contemporary expression of Lyrical Abstraction.

West Branch Gallery and Sculpture Park published the catalog in conjunction with an exhibition of Shulman’s work at West Branch Gallery, Stowe, Vermont, March 7-April 26, 2009.

Helen Shulman: A Catalog of Recent Paintings
published by West Branch Gallery

Details: 8.5″x9″ | 27 pages | 21 full colour illustrations | Published by West Branch Gallery | 2009 | $20.00

$20