Drawings by Bernard Arnest: Scenes from Life
January 19, 2019–June 2, 2019
The most ambitious project of his career, Scenes from Life, is a series of 51 large drawings that encapsulated his reactions to a world that he has decided was essentially tragic. The subject matter can be challenging, depicting human strife and conflict, but the images are beautifully rendered. Scenes from Life is Bernard Arnest’s “Goldberg Variations,” distilling a lifetime of experience into a few harrowing images that are regrettably as relevant today as they were in 1975. This series, presented in its entirety, is a 2017 gift from the widow and children of the artist.