Word: stallknecht
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...Painter Alice Stallknecht's conception of a modern Christ...
...Stumbling. Stallknecht is no Van Gogh. A triangulation of her merits would include not only such lofty points of reference but also the magazine illustrations of Norman Rockwell. Yet undeniably, in an age when thousands of young artists are stumbling about in search of a style they can call their own, Stallknecht has found hers. And she has done it without stumbling or even seeming to breathe hard. She studied illustration as a girl, before the beginning of the century, paused to raise a family and to farm at Chatham on Cape Cod, and then, past 50, felt compelled...
...Painter Stallknecht depicted her fellow townspeople with almost embarrassing clarity and force-in attitudes of worship, puzzlement or indifference-around three versions of Christ in modern dress. For a while, the paintings adorned the local Congregational Church. Then, upset at seeing itself mirrored in its own house of worship, the congregation voted to return the pictures to the artist...
Ever-present Christ. Artist Stallknecht herself belongs to no church. To house her church pictures, she bought an unused freight depot and moved it onto her property. Inhabited only by its painted population, the building stands open to the public. It is protected by a roughly lettered sign: "Chatham murals. Free. No Children. No canes. No smoking." On the table inside is Stallknecht's own handwritten and framed description of her work: "This is Chatham-portraits of its people-democracy. A cross-section of the United States, with Christ, the spirit of God, predominating. He is the Christ...
...Stallknecht canvases that toured the West were also filled with works of religious feeling, works interspersed with somber pictures of Chatham, its seafaring people and their tribulations. Straight-forward and often powerful, her art conveys almost as much bitterness and darkness as it does sweetness and light, with a Christian theme to give some light to its darkest corners...