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Barry Oretsky has long been lauded for his arresting realist paintings. Distinguished art critic Donald Kuspit wrote the foreword to The Reality Principle, a survey of Oretsky’s vast repertoire of work, providing insight into the painter’s works and process.
The granite and limestone art deco building at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street in New York contains 16 jewellers’ benches on the seventh floor. The tools splayed on each bench mimic what would be found in a carpenter’s toolbox. The noticeable difference is scale: screwdrivers, pliers, and saw blades are a fraction the size of what Mr. Fix-It uses.
Painter Barry Oretsky is a matter-of-fact man, and he is not. At his Toronto studio, where he hunkers over a massive canvas, there is something both plain-spoken and mystical going on as he describes a small portion of his technique.
