Bernard Mindich, a former bankruptcy lawyer turned fine art photographer, sees what you might overlook.
A shard of signage, plaster peeking through paint, calligraphic graffiti: The Goldens Bridge resident has observed these throwaway moments that become telling details on walls, first in his native New York City and then all over the world in his travels with wife Ani Kavafian, the classical violinist.
With a camera as paintbrush, Mindich captures textures, colors and compositions in what he calls “PhotoPaintings.”
Those “PhotoPaintings” are the subject of “Wall to Wall – Bernard Mindich,” on view through April 12 at Chroma Fine Art Gallery in Katonah, with an opening reception from 3 to 7 p.m. Saturday, March 14. There viewers may see works that remind them of Mark Rothko’s color-block paintings, or of other Abstract Expressionist artists or of nothing else in the world.
In “RedRamadan – Istanbul” (2007-08), peeling red and gold paint, with flecks of white plaster peeping through, suggest the jeweled palette of the Byzantine art that once defined that city. In “Sarasota Target-3,” the Target logo glares down like a baleful sun on what looks like a black-and-white sail on a green sea. In “Curacao Bank,” an irregular rectangle of exposed brick offers a window onto a Caribbean world of blues, greens and yellows, ornamented by a floating dollar sign.
Mindich didn’t intend to be an artist, growing up in The Bronx and attending William Howard Taft High School, but like the dollar symbol, the signs were there. His two older brothers became artists – one with a sign business, the other studying at The Art Students League in Manhattan.
At 15, however, Mindich knew he wanted to be a lawyer. The history major earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from New York University, then went to NYU School of Law on a partial scholarship, making the Law Review. His goal was to be a civil liberties attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice. The trouble was that those were the years of President John F. Kennedy’s Administration, and the positions were filled.
Instead, Mindich became a prosecutor in Justice’s antitrust division before moving on to commercial litigation and bankruptcy law at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in Manhattan. (He was the first partner after the firm’s original partners.)
But during his 20-year law career, the itch for art grew. He painted “wild abstractions,” using oil sticks on paper or canvas. He sculpted works in wire mesh and plastic with light seeping through and in various metals. Photographing his sculptures led the self-taught artist to photo workshops at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in Manhattan. Street photography led to his wall art.
By 1982 he was done with the law and on to a new career in which his works fetch thousands of dollars. But perhaps the law isn’t entirely done with him. After all, a bankruptcy attorney, like an artist, probably also sees what others overlook, no? What’s the best way to stay out of bankruptcy?, we couldn’t resist asking.
Mindich laughed before offering the simplest, truest advice: “Don’t get into debt.”
