Bars of New York
A Personal Journey
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Bars of NewYork: A Personal Journey by artist Michael Dolen, is a series of small color works grounded in the “Pub World” of East midtown Manhattan. In his visits from Bar to Bar he offers studies and sketches of the inhabitants of this unique culture and its environs. Bartenders, waiters, bus-boys, customers are all subject to Dolen’s vision. To be sure there are references to Manet and Degas. The Moulin Rouge and Toulouse Lautrec studies come to mind. Various figures are characterized by the differences in their costumes and their hair styles. Some are interactive, some repose in silent thought, some are vulgar, some sweet, some lecherous… All seem to mirror a feeling of connectedness that we all experience but may not have a name for. It’s related to the sensation of the urban world trying to make sense of itself. In these color drawings, Dolen combines his artistry with a message of comfort and simple human camaraderie.
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About the Book
Shortly after moving to Manhattan from Saratoga Springs, NY, in our retirement years, my beloved wife, Lenise, became ill. After several months of worsening symptoms, she was admitted to an acute care ward at Weill Cornell Medical Center, the beginning of numerous inpatient stays. For the weeks and months that followed, I would visit her in the hospital from lunchtime to late afternoon. We would talk about our children and our grandchildren, review the daily headlines and current politics, and tell stories and jokes to each other, all the while reviewing our lives and 58 years of marriage together. Whenever I visited Lenise, I would bring a small briefcase which held my sketch books, magic markers, pencils, and pens. While she napped, I worked on small drawings - some figurative, some abstract - mostly rough thoughts and ideas for future finished works. When it was time to leave, I would stop at neighborhood bars and pubs in Midtown East on my way home. There, along with a drink, I began to draw the likenesses of the customers, waiters, and bartenders in my midst, capturing the atmosphere of these new surroundings. I would then take the drawings home and complete them in my apartment studio. Some I gave away as remembrances and gifts, others I sold, and many I include here in “Bars of New York,” a collection of works from 2017-2020. Lenise passed away in 2018. May her memory be forever a blessing.
About the Author
Michael Dolen was born in The Bronx in 1938. He attended The High School of Art and Design and is a graduate of Cooper Union, both located in Manhattan. Later Dolen studied Advanced Drawing and Printmaking at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY. His paintings, drawings, watercolors, constructions, and digital prints have been exhibited in galleries in New York City, Boston, Manchester, Vermont, and Palm Beach and West Palm Beach, Florida. Dolen’s digital print exhibit Poetry Into Painting was shown at the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College. His artwork has been featured in literary magazines Salmagundi and Bennington Review, and many of his pieces reside in private collections across the United States. Dolen lives in New York City and continues to enjoy a prolific life of artmaking.