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Born in New York Joel Schiller,
as a young man, attended the famous Art Students League in
mid-town Manhattan, New York. He studied with such prominent
artists as John Groth and William DeKooning. He continued his
study of Art at Stella Elkins Tyler School of Fine Arts, Temple
University, New York. Joel Schiller completed his education
in the Fine Arts at California State University, Berkeley,
California.
The artist’s earlier acrylic and oil canvas paintings
consist primarily of landscapes, waterscapes and figurative
work. These works explored pastoral and emotional images from
experiences abroad and domestic. Schiller’s strong brushstrokes
and use of raw colors and soft pastels carry the viewer into
his personal world. The many complicated facets of this man
are visible through his work. Yet, even when his paintings
initially appear peaceful, under the surface is a surprising
elemental force.
Joel Schiller’s intention in his recent body of work
is to make a raw emotional statement. His theme symbolically
expresses the electrifying emotion hidden within the human
psyche. Schiller’s “One Raw Emotion,” makes
one feel uneasy in spite of the innocuous cookie-cutter patterns
of white phantasms emerging from blackness, pressed-in on four
sides by fiery-red acrylic. Influenced by the Norwegian artist,
Edward Munch, and the German Expressionist movement, he has
taken a new look at an everyday signage symbol. Selecting a
symbol with subliminal meaning far beyond its original mundane
intention, human utterances of extreme emotion.
Schiller is currently working on a body of work, which sees
him revisiting earth’s natural beauty from a different
view. His new series has been clearly influenced by the force
and depth of emotion he found within himself while creating “Raw
Emotion. Joel’s newest paintings capture the luminosity
of light and the fire-rich colors of dusk. Raw colors are painted
with bold, dynamic strokes across the canvas. The power in
his acrylic paintings were once hidden under the surface, now,
that power is no longer hidden but an elemental force flying
off the painted surface. The drama in all of his work strikes
at the heart of the viewer.
Joel Schiller is considered an established Art Director and
Production Designer in the film industry. He has designed sets
for forty-three major motion pictures. Schiller’s respected
gifts as a fine artist were taken directly onto the sets. He
received special media and private production art commissions
from producers and designers. Cecil Beaton commissioned him
to make production sketches for the film, My Fair Lady. Inspired
by Gustav Klempt, Joel Schiller designed the body tattoos for
Carl (Rod Steiger), The Illustrated Man. As the Art Director
on The Graduate he created a glass fish-bowl conceptual environment
for Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman). Schiller also used his fine
art sensibilities to design the interior of the Rosemary’s
Baby Manhattan-Dakota apartment at Paramount Studios. He was
highly recognized for the artist-drawn qualities of his production
design in such films as: Ice Castles, The (first) Muppet Movie,
The Big Bus; and Murphy’s Romance, starring Sally Field
and James Garner; and Nuts, starring Barbra Streisand; and
Stanley and Iris, starring Jane Fonda and Robert DeNiro.
Eric Orbom, Art Director (ret.) said of Joel Schiller, “He
brought his talents as a fine artist into all the productions
he worked on…”
Schiller’s work is primarily found in California Collections.
Private Collectors: Albert Heinzelman; William LaChasse, Mr. & Mrs.
Erik Orbom; Cybil Sheppard; Jim Henson; Professor Murray, California
State University, Berkeley; Paul Cross; Bradley Sythen. Public & Corporate
Collections: Narrow Margin Films; Crocker Bank, Universal City
(mural); Millikan Company; and Union Oil. Exhibits included
those at Bergamot Station; Los Angeles County Museum of Art
(rental gallery-five years); and Paideia Gallery.
Check
out Joel Schiller at IMDB (International Movie Data Base) |