Collection: Dan Gerhartz Artist Biography and Art Gallery Collection

Dan Gerhartz was born 1965 in Kewaskum, Wisconsin, and began his art education at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, Illinois, where he studied in the classical tradition and immersed himself in applications of technique and design. From museums he visited that exhibited the modern masters such as John Singer Sargent, Alphonse Mucha, Nicolai Fechin, Joaquin Sorolla, Carl von Marr as well as a host of other French and American impressionists he received inspiration. Dan Gerhartz has a particular interest and appreciation for modern Russian art and the sumptuous canvases of the painters Nicolai Fechin, Isaac Levitan and Ilya Repin. As Dan says, their paintings are "completely loose yet deliberate and faithful, not at all flashy." Indeed, the powerful and evocative beauty of Dan Gerhartz's paintings are also due in large measure to looseness, honesty and faithfulness of his style.

Dan Gerhartz's absolutely lavish surfaces, color and lighting are in harmony with his expressionistic brushstroke, application and modeling of light and shade. His paintings are sensitive yet evocative creations, which dramatize his bold and ambitious technique.Dan's paintings embrace a range of subjects, most prominently the female figure in either a pastoral setting or an intimate interior. He is at his best with subjects from everyday life, genre subjects, sacred-idyllic landscapes or figures in quiet repose, meditation or contemplative isolation. His mastery of the female figure, the clothed figure especially, is brilliant.

After a brief stint in commercial art, Dan Gerhartz began pursuing fine art, finding his passion in painting from life. This direct approach to working with the figure and landscape allowed him to see and attempt to capture the infinite nuances of light, color, and form. This continues to drive his enthusiasm today. He has been featured in solo and group shows across the country and has won several awards at prominent national invitational exhibitions.  His work has been collected both nationally and internationally.

Dan Gerhartz's skillful and technically adept work celebrates the created world, the human form, personal relationships with a connection to landscapes and environments of special importance. Many of his figures are dressed in dramatic clothing which he often invents for its aesthetic appeal and lyrical quality so as to achieve a sense of other worldliness. His subjects evoke a timelessness and idealism, yet for the most part Dan has drawn upon his home and community, including family and friends, for subject matter. His sense of intimacy and honesty with regard to his subjects are a direct result of his closeness and proximity to them. A projection of tranquility, repose and rich introspection result from his knowledge of the content of his art.