Armory Show

“While Gary Brotmeyer’s pictures are make-believe in the sense of being obviously fabricated, they represent an ongoing serious attempt or reconcile the meaning of many diverse and recognizable images from his own life, as well as ours. Perhaps the closest historical analogue to Gary’s work can be found in the “fantastic realism” of Latin American literature. For a writer like Borges, history (reality) is composed of endless and repeating possibilities, the significance of which is likely to be hidden from the observer in the present, or be discovered when it is too late to make any difference. There is no necessary connection between events; causality is a fiction traced in hindsight.

Despite circumstantial differences between cultures and characters, for Borges all of recorded history seems to be present in the same recurring stories. Gary’s work repeatedly centers around masks, concealment, and, like Borges, the recognition and manipulation of apparently coincidental resemblances. Emerging from the multiplicity of forms and media employed in Gary’s collages are certain recurring elements, for example, hands which often form our most direct and recognizable human contact with the works.

The interchangeability of facts and forms by Borges and Brotmeyer can be traced to surrealism, and accounts for the strong magical quality in both their work. Human drama appears almost dreamlike, acted out against an indelible landscape. As such, considerable tension results from the interplay between apparently real and obviously fictional elements. In his collages, Brotmeyer use actual photographs to establish an emotional connection with his viewer, while juxtaposing artificial and unexpected elements on the picture surface. All of the images struggle for verification within the frame, making the portraits seem both real and unreal, mythic as well as playful.

On a literal level, Gary appropriates images and uses them for his own purposes. The turn of the century cabinet photographs which form the basis of many of the collages appear to have been chosen because the personalities they depict are dead, and as portraits project very little authority. These appropriated images are transformed into commentary on how inherited forms-style of dress, technology, economic history, play a role in shaping our identities. Perhaps most importantly Gary is well acquainted with the history of modern art, and the extent to which it influences his activity as an our artist and our perceptions as consumers. The collages are visual archeology.

Everyone is in their own world. Hence, it is ultimately difficult to say how individual history-even that of an artist such as Gary-can become intertwined with others. While the collage elements are drawn from many sources, the iconography is unmistakably American. At time, Gary’s images appear anecdotal, but taken together they comprise a uniquely American portrait designed to help us re-imagine ourselves.”

G. A. Wardle
New York City
1986