Gerard Mossé Light Rising
Gerard Mossé Light Rising: Watercolors 1998-2000
This catalogue accompanies an exhibition on view October 29 - November 24, 2026
Jill Newhouse Gallery 4 East 81st Street New York, NY (212) 249-9261
info@jillnewhouse.com www.jillnewhouse.com
Catalogue
This exhibition of watercolors from the artist’s private collection is the third show at the gallery of Gerard Mossé’s work.
His luminosity is contagious. Grateful as always to Dorothy and to Amelia Gorman in the gallery.
Text written by the artist
Jill Newhouse, Fall 2026
Printed by Puritan Press Catalogue design by Amelia Gorman Photography by Adam Reich
T hese works were made between 1998 and 2000. They haven’t been shown until now, thank you to Jill. Around that time, a recent visit to Eglise Sainte-Chapelle in Paris combined with -financial- circumstances which kept me from working on large-format paintings made modest-sized watercolors the ideal choice. The series immediately preceding had been made with powdered pigment on canvas. I had wanted the experience of unmediated color, the most extreme form of saturation, which offers itself to the eye as light. With watercolor I discovered the magic of transparent pigment: light traveling through color to the white of paper and returning to the eye as illumination, evoking the beauty of stained glass on a sunlit day.
Gerard Mossé, September 2026
Self Portrait Charcoal and graphite on paper 11 3/8 x 8 1/4 inches Private collection
There is an edge to watercolor. The risk-taking is part of its appeal. After layering colors on top of one another, patiently, over long periods of time, the accumulated brushstrokes combining to heighten their radiance, one ill-inspired last mark is enough to cause the cathedral of light to vanish.
That can’t be fixed.
Untitled, 6499 11 9/16 x 10 3/16 inches
The thinness of these pigments might have been suited to painting the part of “Me” that is not my body, unlike oil with its ability to allude to flesh.
Untitled, 6607 10 3/16 x 14 1/8 inches
Untitled, 6601 9 x 12 3/16 inches
“In nature light creates the color. In the picture color creates the light.” Hans Hoffmann
Untitled, 6511 9 1/16 x 8 1/4 inches
I recall at an opening an artist friend telling me, generously, in front of one of my works: “Gerard, it looks like you have become a master of light.” Only later that evening did I realize I had missed the opportunity to reply with what would have been the only appropriate response: “Light has no master.”
As I keep being reminded with each new work.
Untitled, 6563 8 x 10 9/16 inches
Untitled, 6553 7 1/16 x 10 13/16 inches
I moved from figurative to abstract organically, gradually seeking to free color from representation, finding it enough to let it speak its own language.
Untitled, 6506 7 1/16 x 10 3/16 inches
Thought can be expressed through color; color interests me most when it has become light.
Light comes from within the painting.
Untitled, 6570 9 x 12 3/16 inches
Music can offer a direct line to the sublime. But not just music: Fra Angelico at San Marco, Morandi in Bologna, Rembrandt at the Prado, Bellini at The Frick. The presence of paint warmed by the empyrean brain.
Untitled, 6560 9 x 12 1/8 inches
Sir Walter Scott on the hues of the rainbow: “The dyes of heaven.”
Untitled, 6522 10 3/16 x 14 1/8 inches
Art is not therapy. It involves the transformation of raw experience into aesthetic experience. But it is a joy. Joy, not pleasure – all that anxiety – but joy in the sense that life without it is not conceivable.
Untitled, 6549 8 15/16 x 8 3/16 inches
Untitled, 6542 8 3/16 x 9 inches
“Instructions for living life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” Mary Oliver
Untitled, 6532 12 5/8 x 9 5/16 inches
Patience. Ability to sustain Doubt. Effort – which must not show.
Effortlessness is hard work.
Untitled, 6591 9 x 12 1/8 inches
“Light is the first of painters.” R.W. Emerson
Untitled, 6539 14 1/8 x 10 3/16 inches
Overlapping colors of light – those of the rainbow, for instance – yield the brightest, white light. Overlapping pigments, on the other hand – even when transparent – negate each other, become darker.
Untitled, 6573 14 1/8 x 20 inches
“Art is a wound turned into light.” Braque “All art worthy of the name is religious.” Matisse
Yes and yes, and more.
Untitled, 6610 10 1/8 x 7 1/16 inches
A recurring question when I am working: “Is it alive yet?” While I reach for sensorial intensity and clarity in my painting, its essence remains a mystery.
Untitled, 6517 12 1/8 x 9 inches
Flaubert to fellow creatives: “Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.” I haven’t always sufficiently lived by these words – regular and orderly. I do now, have for a while. It makes for good days in the studio.
Untitled, 6594 12 1/8 x 9 inches
www.jillnewhouse.com
Page 1 Page 2-3 Page 4-5 Page 6-7 Page 8-9 Page 10-11 Page 12-13 Page 14-15 Page 16-17 Page 18-19 Page 20-21 Page 22-23 Page 24-25 Page 26-27 Page 28-29 Page 30-31 Page 32-33 Page 34-35 Page 36-37 Page 38-39 Page 40-41 Page 42-43 Page 44-45 Page 46Made with FlippingBook Digital Proposal Creator