Sandor Camille

Sandor Camille is a British painter working in New York City known for his monumental portraits of historical personalities and studies of the human body. He is best known for large-scale portraits of Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, Jack Johnson and Sir Winston Churchill.

Camille first came to prominence in London under the patronage of British entrepreneur, art collector and promoter Frank Warren. In the 1990s, Camille was the front-cover feature of British newspapers and participated in the BBC television documentary, The Art Marathon. [ [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19950716/ai_n13994757/pg_1 TECHNICAL KNOCKOUT | Independent, The (London) | Find Articles at BNET.com ] ] His last London show earned the "London Evening Standard’s" Hottest Ticket. He has appeared in journals from "Modern Painter" and "Contemporary Art" to "Time Out."

In 2003, Camille’s work was featured in Spike Lee’s film "She Hate Me". [ [http://www.allmovieportal.com/m/2004_She_Hate_Me_about_the_filmmakers.html AllMoviePortal.com: She Hate Me (2004) about the filmmakers ] ] His 8’ x 8’ portrait of Joe Louis, commissioned personally by Lee, was the centerpiece of the main set depicting the protagonist’s apartment. [ [http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/movies/review/2004/07/30/hate/index.html?source=search&aim=/ent/movies/review "She Hate Me" - Salon.com ] ] Lee is today a major collector of Camille’s work.

Camille draws his influence from painters such as Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud but builds on the post-War developments in American abstract art. His work synthesizes some of the defining characteristics of these two aesthetic traditions by addressing both how much can be put into a painting and how much can be left out. His work is marked by sweeping strokes applied with great force and at high speed, delicate hand rubbed gradations of tone and color and paint alternatively battered and coaxed in a complex process bearing no obvious relationship to the concrete and sculptural forms that eventually emerge as the outcome. In contrast to this, the space in all of Camille’s work is characterized by how much can be left out. The portraits and close-ups of human action are stripped of all spatial narrative.

Camille’s work was also featured in the cover of "Dark Trade" [ [http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1840189568 Amazon.co.uk: Dark Trade: Lost in Boxing: Donald McRae: Books ] ] , Donald McRae’s award-winning memoir of the boxing world. In 2002, Camille elucidated the historical worldview informing his work in a lecture at the New York Academy of Art, “From Michelangelo’s Ceiling to Duchamp’s Urinal.” Working directly with collectors and sponsors, Camille has built a base in New York bridging the gap between the art world and the general public.

References

External links

* [http://www.sandorcamille.com Sandor Camille Homepage]
* [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19950716/ai_n13994757/pg_1 Independent Feature Article]
* [http://www.allmovieportal.com/m/2004_She_Hate_Me_about_the_filmmakers.html She Hate Me Production Notes]
* [http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/movies/review/2004/07/30/hate/index.html?source=search&aim=/ent/movies/review Salon.com Review]
* [http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1840189568 Dark Trade]