By Fredric Koeppel, The Commercial Appeal, September, 1988
Wendi Schneider's photographs are stunning, bringing an air of ghostly slumber and decadence to the otherwise neutral lobby of Theatre Memphis. Art photography usually divides into two esthetic branches: the line that wants to record the world with such fidelity that the world itself seems other worldly (William Eggleston's work. for example), and the line seeking to create the world through suggestion, arrangement and manipulation. Ms. Schneider's evocative works fall into the second category.
A handful of the 23 photographs are black-and-white, but mainly the artist hand-paints her black-and-white prints with oil paint. Through this process she produces color of great subtlety and emotional range. Hers is not a spontaneous art but one of careful and timeless monumentality, lavish with shadow, imperturbable as icons.
Her studies of calla lilies begin not with those flowers growing outside or clustered in a vase. Rather, they consist of one lily, photographed in black-and-white and hand-colored, that in her image exudes the waxy stately essence of the blossom, not a calla lily but the calla lily.
Many of Ms. Schneider's images involve beautiful women in dreamy solitude, meditative and catlike in the comfort of their bodies draped with rich fabrics. Particularly evocative are Bliss, one of the simplest in composition but rich in suggestion, and Pink Lace. A 13-year resident of New Orleans (her parents live in Germantown), the artist has provocatively captured some of the bittersweet sensuality of the Crescent City in these images.
The most startling photograph in the show, Musee d 'Orsay, depicts the statue of a screaming helmeted warrior. Meticulous hand-painting gives it the appearance of a 19th century lithograph. As a work of art, it is beautiful; as a subject, it is profoundly disturbing. especially because of the contrast between the subject and its esthetic treatment.
Her studies of calla lilies begin not with those flowers growing outside or clustered in a vase. Rather, they consist of one lily, photographed in black-and-white and hand-colored, that in her image exudes the waxy stately essence of the blossom, not a calla lily but the calla lily.
Many of Ms. Schneider's images involve beautiful women in dreamy solitude, meditative and catlike in the comfort of their bodies draped with rich fabrics. Particularly evocative are Bliss, one of the simplest in composition but rich in suggestion, and Pink Lace. A 13-year resident of New Orleans (her parents live in Germantown), the artist has provocatively captured some of the bittersweet sensuality of the Crescent City in these images.
The most startling photograph in the show, Musee d 'Orsay, depicts the statue of a screaming helmeted warrior. Meticulous hand-painting gives it the appearance of a 19th century lithograph. As a work of art, it is beautiful; as a subject, it is profoundly disturbing. especially because of the contrast between the subject and its esthetic treatment.