Reviews and Essays
...One of the things that has
impressed curator Leah Stoddard
the most about Slaughter’s
work is her willingness to take
new artistic paths that lead
away from the familiar…“what
greatly impresses me about Anne
Slaughter and her work is her
willingness to take chances.” Stoddard
said. “It’s very
hard I think as an artist to
experiment and try new directions. “Her
work is interesting to me because
it has a real European approach.
That is to say, when she tries
something new, she does not
leave what she was doing in
the past behind. It’s
always continuing these themes.
It’s a very sophisticated
approach. She is not afraid
to try something new, revisit
something she has done before
or even try new materials.”…
…Lyn Bolen Warren, owner
and director of Les Yeux du
Monde gallery, has been an admirer
of Slaughter’s work since
first encountering it in the
1980s.
“Although she has followed
an inner voice throughout her
artistic career, using it to
respond to events and emotions
in her own life, the works reverberate
in other’s lives because
they evoke human emotions, losses
and memories that transcend
the particular and are more
about the history of our own
time.”
“Her work through the
years reveals a continuous and
authentic artistic quest and
accomplishment.”
David
A. Maurer – Daily
Progress, Charlottesville VA
2006
Slaughter is a contemplative artist.
Coming as she does from war-torn
Europe to a quiet university
town, she is a close observer
of two worlds, and her duality
of vision is apparent in her
frequent overlaying of one color
or texture upon another. Her
rich layering is too grand and
too dynamic to be simply identified
as collage. The lead, copper
foil or what looks like bandaged
gauze as well as bits of painted
canvas and paper evoke strength
and force of serious thought.
These collaged elements become
potent symbols. But the most
prevalent and symbolic of the
elements are her bits and pieces
of handwritten texts.
… Slaughter’s work
possesses an amazing sense of
beauty, not just the beauty
of a message of hope, but the
physical beauty of harmony and
elegance. However even in her
most beautiful and elegiac paintings
there are still signs
of tearing and forcing elements
into a new whole, one that is
elegant and emotionally provocative.
Sally Troyer - independent curator
- catalogue essay 2006
…People are absent in human
form in Anne Slaughter’s
work, but they are present in
the marks they have left, physically,
intellectually, emotionally
and spiritually. The transformation
of the remainders of doors or
walls into expressive paintings
infused with glowing colors
and rich textures pulsate with
commonalities of human memories…The
artist infuses her paintings
with temporality while struggling
for power and mystery…
…Slaughter seeks an understanding
of our universe. Passionate
about art and its relevance
to nature and human experience,
she embraces her love of beauty
and seeks to convey it profoundly.
The essence of Slaughter’s
struggle is contained in her
White Paintings. This is about
silence, about loss. Stillness,
the absence of energy as it
fades and finally forgetting.
White to the artist is the color
of light and death. It is the
purity of a bleached bone in
the desert or unsoiled snow.
It is an essential part of her
vocabulary and she views it
as having many colors to express
the distillation of silence…
Vivienne
Lassman – independent
curator- catalogue essay 2006
...The strong textures and surfaces
in the current exhibition reflect
her previous work. The paintings
and the sole sculpture are done
in mixed media, with acrylic
paint, lead foil…Some
of the canvases are slashed,
their gashes filled with small
cloth or paper bundles, like
hidden treasures.
It is that sense of mystery,
the feeling of secrets revealed
but inexplicable that give Slaughter’s
work their emotional power.
We wonder who lived in these
walls, although the answer is
obvious, we all do….
Memory
of Walls – Ferdinand
Protzman, Washington Post 1995
Troyer, Fitzpatrick and Lassman
Gallery is showing a fine group
of paintings by Anne Slaughter
from her “Memory” series.
The central theme running through
all Slaughter’s works
in recent years is the erosive
power of time, how it inexorably
wears down the natural world
and renders people physically,
mentally and emotionally indistinct….
…There are many lovely
paintings –subtle, lyrical,
engaging—in the show.
But the single most powerful
piece is a sculptural installation
titled “Portal of Memories
#1”. It consists of am
arched doorway…From the
apex of the doorway Slaughter
has hung a bunch of letters
in her native French…the
letters function like bits of
sand passing through an hour
glass. Their significance and
context are steadily eroding….
There is something overwhelmingly
honest in the sculptural installation
and a terrible simple beauty.
Reflections
on Memory – Ferdinand
Protzman, Washington Post 1998
The walls reference the residue
of war destroyed houses from
the artist’s childhood
memories of her native Belgium.
However, the pieces in this
show achieve a universality
that transcends specific time
and place. The layering of materials…beautifully
captures the artist’s
concept of the layering of memories
and surfaces. She masterfully
integrates the components of
her work so that color, texture,
and composition achieve a flawless
interaction…
Memory
of Walls – Koan, “must
see” Sheilah Rotner 1998
Fading messages are given concrete
form in Anne Slaughter’s
mixed media compositions. Bundled
together like precious artifacts
from the distant past, or scratched
on a mesh-covered ‘wall”,
they speak of antiquity, love,
war, happiness and sorrow. In
her memorable compositions,
Slaughter keeps the past alive.
Ruth Latter, Daily Progress,
Charlottesville, VA 1999