Artrage 5 news3/27/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() “The work to include them, to make the country honest, needed to be done by them.” “(I’m) trying to demonstrate to this country that because the initial values of the country were never lived up to, purposefully, it took incredible courage and commitment from the people who had been left out, marginalized, ignored and not included in the ideals of the country,” Shetterly said. Though “the portrait” is historically a means of bourgeois vanity and expressing esteem, Shetterly’s work recontextualizes the idea into a way to honor people who are consistently marginalized. After he painted Walt Whitman, Shetterly left the gallery and portraiture became his entire concentration. He was known for his illustration, and had a gallery spot because of his drawings and etchings. Though you wouldn’t tell from the consistency across his Americans Who Tell The Truth series or the sensitivity portrayed in each subjects’ face, Shetterly hadn’t painted a portrait before the series. The only time all his portraits were exhibited at once - a total of 238 at the time - was at the Schine Student Center in 2018. This is his third show at ArtRage Gallery, but he has also shown work at Syracuse University five times and has portraits on display in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Shetterly has forged connections with Syracuse activists like Ryan in the time he has spent here. Over his shirt is a quote from Ryan: “It’s so easy to hate but so hard to love.” His name is etched above his head, as is the case for every painting in the series. With an earnest gaze against a burnt red background, the focus is heavy on Ryan’s eyes, then fades out to a sketched-out shirt and gestured hands. After seeing a photograph of Ryan at an ArtRage exhibit last spring, Shetterly said he knew Ryan was exactly the figure he needed – someone on the streets taking direct action, being courageous and telling the truth. What started for Shetterly as a once-off painting of a hero has turned into a national organization: Americans Who Tell The Truth, which exhibits the portraits across the US and runs programs in education and community activism.Ī portrait of Clifford Ryan, a native Syracusean and founder of OGs Against Violence, sets off the exhibit at ArtRage. In his paintings, 23 of which are showing at ArtRage Gallery on Hawley Avenue until October 29, Shetterly uses the power of the portrait to shine a light on courageous local and national Americans, living and dead. The paintings are cathartic for Shetterly - a way to mitigate his frustration and anger at America’s systems of power by focusing on the people trying to uphold the values of democracy, despite the subjects being historically left out of the American democracy narrative in the first place. He painted the American poet’s portrait, the first of over 260 portraits of “American Truth Tellers,” and counting. And then one day I looked at my studio wall and there was a quote from Walt Whitman I had stuck up there years ago.” “I was in such a condition that I knew I had to do something positive with all that energy. “I was so angry I was becoming a total nuisance to everyone around me,” Shetterly said. In the year that followed, Robert Shetterly, a Maine-based multimedia artist and longtime activist in the Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam War protests, became increasingly distraught by American violence. Then, the US invaded Iraq, killing over 200,000 people. In 2001, two planes dove into the World Trade Center, killing over 2,000 people. Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox. ![]()
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