DANSE MACABRE: WORK BY JOE ORFFEO
Harold L. Olmsted Gallery | March 20th – May 25th
Joseph Angelo Orffeo (American, 1926-2013) was a Western New York artist who studied at the Art Institute of Buffalo in the 1940’s and 1950’s with influence from the likes of Robert Blair (American, 1912-2003) and Charles Burchfield (American, 1893-1967). He served in the Naval Armed Guard during World War II.
This show includes work from Orffeo’s Death, Image of Man, and Bone Series – described by him as commentaries on what was happening in the world politically and social protests against the Iraq and Korean
war. He was a modernist abstract artist whose use of movement and bright, vivid color serves as a contrast to the dark themes found in much of his work.
Orffeo preferred not to talk about the disturbing events he witnessed overseas. Rather, he dealt with the things which haunted him through painting, expressing recurrent motifs in his art.
The allegory of Danse macabre introduced the skeletal representation of Death around the 15th century with the portrayal of skeletons dancing people to their graves. Danse macabre, much like Orffeo’s work, serves as a reminder of the inevitability and universality of death.
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