"The
Family Curse" The Angelochs of Woodstock
By Jay Blotcher
“The
Family Curse” will ultimately include an eclectic variety
of figurative work, still life and landscape. Each family member
will be represented by ten pieces.
Angeloch
grew up in Woodstock with two parents who were working artists,
and who had a huge social circle of fellow artists. For most of
his childhood, Angeloch said, he simply believed that all adults
were artists. There was no pressure from the family to become an
artist, he said. The most overt support he remembers might have
come one Christmas, when his parents gave young Eric a set of colored
markers. Nonetheless, Angeloch began studying under his father while
in his teens, attended the Art Students League of New York City,
a crucible for some of the best-known artists of the 20th century,
and returned home to study at Woodstock School of Art, where he
still teaches. While he denies that his father’s reputation
dwarfed his output, Eric was aware enough that he initially eschewed
landscapes to avoid invoking comparison with his father. After several
years of figure work, however, he realized that landscapes “put
bread on the table” and returned to the genre. (Angeloch draws
landscapes from memory, not by model, resulting in renderings of
trees that resemble no known genus.)
Eric’s
grandparents lived up the road in Woodstock and were a significant
presence in his life. But their careers as artists had ended by
the time their grandson arrived. Pauline Stone was by then an antiques
dealer. Angeloch gestures to the wall of the dining room. A watercolor
illustration by Stone, circa 1915, is a beguiling study in economy
of line and movement. A young girl stands in a field, her skirt
ruffled by a passing breeze. To the right of this work is a framed
pen and ink sketch of a topless female. Her woman from the back,
nude save for a pair of high heels.
CONTINUE....
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