Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art
St. Joseph, Missouri
(816) 233-7003
David Brega and Douglas Brega:
Oil and Water
Paintings by identical
twin-brother artists will be on display through June 3, 2001 at the Albrecht-Kemper
Museum of Art in the special exhibition David Brega and Douglas Brega:
Oil and Water. The 25-year retrospective of the Bregas' work is their
first major joint exhibition, and is coming to St. Joseph after its showing
in Springfield Massachusetts at the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts (see
below).
Douglas
Brega, of East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, paints realistic watercolors of
the people and places of New England, with his work often being compared
to that of Andrew Wyeth. His architectural landscapes of lighthouses, old
Colonial homes, Cape Cod windows, and weathered buildings capture the simple
grandeur of New England. He is attracted to clean shapes, angled lines,
and the play of light and shadow. He usually works from 
photographs,
sometimes taking as many as 100 slides which he uses to make preliminary
sketches. When he creates portraits, Doug tries to bring out the personality
of the person, rather than concentrate on the physical likeness. His paintings
are meticulously done in a watercolor and drybrush medium, which is extremely
difficult and allows him to achieve extraordinary detail. (left:
Douglas Brega, Nubble Light, 1996, watercolor on paper, 25 x 40 inches,
Private collection; right: Douglas Brega, Sarah, 1994, drybrush on
paper, 21 x 28 inches, Collection of Douglas Brega)
David
Brega works in the trompe l'oeil tradition, meaning "to fool the eye"
into believing that which is painted is real. He is often told that his
paintings looks as real as photographs, but he emphasizes that he is not
a photorealist. He suggests that "Photos look like photos, while trompe
l'oeil looks like it's there." Many of the subjects used in his paintings
were found in antique stores. He is drawn to old, worn surfaces and intrigued
by light and patina.
(left: David Brega, Bouguereau Woman,
1999, oil on masonite, 20 x 12 1/2 inches. Private collection; right: David
Brega, Jack in the Box, 1992, oil on masonite, 6 1/8 x 8 5/8 inches,
Collection of Bebe and Crosby Kemper)
His most recent painting, "Colors", is being
shown for the first time in this exhibition. The painting is of an elaborately
decorated leather jacket with an American flag as a backdrop. The jacket
belongs to his friend, Joey Kramer, the drummer from the rock group Aerosmith.
The title "Colors" refers to the term that motorcyclists use to
describe their personalized jackets. David wove the colors theme into his
composition by including the flag (flying the colors) and a playbill from
a performance of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,"
in which his son Jess appeared with Donny Osmond.
David
and Douglas Brega were born in Springfield, Massachusetts on 
Christmas
Day, 1948, and were raised in nearby East Longmeadow. After studying together
at Paler School of Art in New Haven, Connecticut, Douglas said to David,
"You take oil. I'll take water", thus defining the direction their
art would take. The two spent time as commercial artists, and worked together
on an enormous 80' x 40' double portrait of Frank Sinatra that hung outside
Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas in 1979 as a tribute to his 64th birthday.
(left: Douglas Brega, After the Harvest, 1985, drybrush on
paper, 20 x 29 inches, Collection of Susan and David Hurwitt; right: David
Brega, Apple Trio, 1995, oil on masonite, 19 x 26 inches,. Collection
of Susan Lunt Chapman)
The Bregas' works are included in some of the finest collections
in the world, including the collection of Kansas City banker Crosby Kemper,
and Doug's work is in the permanent collections of the Kemper Museum of
Contemporary Art and Design in Kansas City, and the Albrecht-Kemper Museum
of Art.
Works by David and Douglas have been on a total of 11 Yankee
magazine covers, including David's work, "Yankee Rack Picture",
which appeared on the jacket of the commemorative book The Best of Yankee
Magazine,
Editor's note: RL readers may also enjoy:
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Douglas
Brega, of East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, paints realistic watercolors of
the people and places of New England, with his work often being compared
to that of Andrew Wyeth. His architectural landscapes of lighthouses, old
Colonial homes, Cape Cod windows, and weathered buildings capture the simple
grandeur of New England. He is attracted to clean shapes, angled lines,
and the play of light and shadow. He usually works from 
photographs,
sometimes taking as many as 100 slides which he uses to make preliminary
sketches. When he creates portraits, Doug tries to bring out the personality
of the person, rather than concentrate on the physical likeness. His paintings
are meticulously done in a watercolor and drybrush medium, which is extremely
difficult and allows him to achieve extraordinary detail. (left:
Douglas Brega, Nubble Light, 1996, watercolor on paper, 25 x 40 inches,
Private collection; right: Douglas Brega, Sarah, 1994, drybrush on
paper, 21 x 28 inches, Collection of Douglas Brega)
