Art & Money: Paintings by Trompe L'oeil Masters, Michael Theise and John Yerger

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The words "art" and "money" are almost inseparable in today's parlance. What's hot? What's not. Auction goers scratch their heads trying to discern what will languish and what will be the next world record. The Cooley Gallery is noting this relationship in a more literal way with the opening of their exhibition ART & MONEY Paintings by Trompe L'oeil Masters, Michael Theise and John Yerger, July 20th through August 24th, 2013 at 25 Lyme Street in Old Lyme. Unlike other forms of representational art the absolute goal in trompe l'oeil painting is a deliberate one to deceive. Like a magician they call perceptions into question. The technical measure was set by Zeuxis (born circa 464 BC), a Greek painter who produced a still-life so convincing birds were pecking at the grapes. Not to be one-upped, his rival Parrhasius asked Zeuxis to pull back the pair of very tattered curtains to compare abilities. Zeuxis was foiled when he reached to pull back the painted curtain. Artists have been enjoying this form of technical competition ever since. If the painting looks as real as the object it depicts then it succeeds in igniting the debate between the art and the eye; knowing the painting is not the object it appears to be. Much more recently William Harnett revived the tradition in which the ultimate compliment for an artist was when a painting was damaged when a viewer tried to steal the money away from the canvas. Mike Theise walked in to the Cooley Gallery more than 20 years ago, looked around, talked about art and then opened the trunk of his car to reveal three years worth of his perfectly painted trompe l'oeil canvases. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship and a break from Mike's day-to-day responsibilities as a produce manager for Stop & Shop. This group of paintings includes one of Mike's favorite subjects - money. When Jeff Cooley first visited Mike's studio he saw a pile of toothpicks under the easel. He couldn't get them out of his mind. When he finally asked Mike what they were all about Mike said, almost offhandedly, "The toothpicks? I use them to paint the bills." Mike studied painting at the Paier School of Art in Hamden. John Yerger is native to Buffalo, New York and he too was classically trained. He attended the Art Institute of Buffalo and Boston's Vesper George School of Art. Originally John focused on landscape painting but by the latter part of the 1990s he began to challenge his skills by incorporating trompe l'oeil imagery of landscapes painted by some of histories most famous artists into his own compositions. John layers imagery and creates his own neo-narratives. If these often priceless works of art were ever available to the market and offered at auction the conversation would go from art immediately back to money. This exhibition runs through August 24th. An opening reception begins at 5 p.m. and goes until 8 p.m. on Saturday July 20th, 2013. IMAGE: John Yerger, Magic in New York Harbor, c 1865 oil on panel, 8" x 10"