ANDERS GISSON

Gisson, or Andre Gisson, is the brush name of Anders Gittelson (1921-2003). He was born in Brooklyn, NY. He lived and painted in Mahopac, N.Y. and later in Westport, Conn.

Not long after his teenage years on the Brooklyn streets, Gisson enlisted in the Army Corps of Engineers reconstructing the roadways and airfields in the wake of World War II. During this time he traveled extensively in Japan and Paris, never without his box of paints.

He was awarded a scholarship at the prestigious Pratt Institute where he continued to learn and develop an eye and personal style which has now become instantly recognizable around the world. After graduation, he joined the United States Armed Services, and resumed his career in art upon his return to New York. Gisson continued his studies in Europe, where he came under the influence of the great French impressionists. The style and technique of impressionism, with its small broken brushwork and high key colors, is one Gisson has developed and refined throughout his career.

A versatile artist, Gisson is equally adept at painting landscapes, coastal scenes, still lifes and portraits. His landscape scenes depict the French countryside, the region around Lake Mahopac in upstate New York, where he lived for many years, and the beaches and estuarys around Westport Conn., where he worked until 2002. Gisson's landscapes and beach scenes create a reflective mood of serenity. This is also true of his portraits and of the manner in which he handles the human element. The order and beauty of his florals and still lifes are manifestations of the Japanese influence in his work; while the French influence is more pronounced in his landscapes, beach scenes and studies of the human figure. Gisson has exhibited in leading art galleries throughout the country, from New York to Texas, and from Philadelphia to California. Several of Gisson’s paintings have been published and distributed internationally. Gisson feels that it is the role of the artist to extend or "explain" perception and feeling and in this way enlarge the total human vision...."Flowers for me are a way of feeling certain effects of light and conversely, light is a means for expressing something very personal about the way I experience flowers." All of Gisson's paintings have the softness of line of the classic impressionist. He is more concerned with the creation of a mood or feeling, rather than a precise depiction of the subject. Gisson's works reflect the belief that art is expreienced in very complex ways. First, the eyes see, and then there is perception through all of the senses. Art, in its multi-leveled complexities is created and experienced, first by the artist and then by his audience. "When I begin to paint, certain remembered sensations come to me and it is these that I translate into visual form and related subjects. These subjects--people, the nude, florals, landscapes, beaches, etc., recur constantly like obsessive memories. For the most part they are the common universal experiences of all of us, neither contemporary nor out of an antique past, but with a sentiment which I hope is recognizable to others at any time".

His work has been accepted in the highest demand and sell-out exhibitions from Tokyo to London have made Gisson a household name in the field of American Impressionism.. . The syntheseis of various influences, ranting from Vermeer, Chardin, Renoir, Monet, and Morandi in Europe, to reflective study of Sesshu and other Sumi-e masters of China and Japan, has developed the unique personal style which is recognized by collectors, critics, and teachers as one of the strong influences of late twentieth century American art. As Gisson himself best expresses: "The subject matter of most of my work comes directly out of my immediate experience and environment. I live near the seashore and spend considerable time sketching the coast and estuaries of New England and absorbing the life and atmosphere. My wife is an avid gardener, so my home is surrounded with most of the landscape subject matter, particularly the flowers and flowering shrubs and tree that appear in my oils. In recent years I have begun to paint the world of art galleries which is so much an element of my life. Hence the variety of subjects related to museums, galleries, art collectors, and critics." "Often I see a horizon or a vertical element of the scene as a focus of stability. The forms themselves are blended into the background to produce a feeling of unity. A painting, for me, is only finished when everything works together, producing a composition in which any further changes would only be disturbing. My colors are very closely related to each other, but I change colors arbitrarily in order to heighten certain feelings - warmth, reality, loneliness. It can be said that for certain effects, more is accomplished by using less color." "But beyond that I think that each artist has in his psyche a design imperative that tells him how to integrate the forms and colors in a way that satisfies this inner voice, and, for want of a better word, become his "style". I endeavor to produce a mood by integrating forms and colors into a seamless unity that transcends the subject matter; and that, I like to think, is the essence of my style."