Silent Circus sets up tent here for last time

Lance Raichert and Clown II, pencil.

Racine's Gallery Night was dark, rainy and cold, but there was a lively party Saturday night in many of the city's art galleries nevertheless.

None held a candle to the one at Monfort's Fine Art Gallery, where Lance Raichert and his wife Patricia Lee Raichert were exhibiting together for the first time. The gallery was absolutely packed with friends happy to talk to Pat and Lance, and art lovers eager to see 18 drawings from Lance's Silent Circus series lining the gallery's long wall.

Silent Circus is more than two-dozen pen and ink drawings done since 1982. But "pen and ink" doesn't begin to explain Lance Raichert's technique, which has been described as "putting lines between lines, and dots between dots." Extraordinary detail, in other words.

"What began as a fictitious circus that would travel from town to town ... has developed into a study of the evolution of generations of circus performers performing the same job year after year," says the catalog. "From this grew the very real observations of human nature, while being certain to incorporate a humorous view of life's little idiosyncrasies along the way."

The drawings are large and fanciful, but Raichert is rarely satisfied, even though he might spend a year completing a single image. Holding two fingers about an inch apart on Saturday night, he said, "When I'm done I feel I've created this much perfection." But then the fingers move much closer to each other. The catalog quotes him saying, "At this point, I feel I have created one-quarter-inch of perfection in every painting and drawing I have completed. I will continue working to bring all of those together in one painting."

There are some images he wants to do, Raichert says, but he lacks the skill to complete them to his satisfaction. But he keeps at it. At least one work in progress was on display.

The drawing above is described this way in the catalog: "The last of three images done in pencil for the sake of achieving greater detail, the second clown is exquisite. Mimicking aspects of the costuming of the first Clown, this clown is more inviting than he is scary. Also, the costume seems to hint at a time and place that has long faded into history. Note Raichert's fascinating use of negative space by implying that the subject is reclining on a wall, and yet the wall remains unseen."

For those who haven't seen Silent Circus, this probably is the last time so many pieces from the series will be exhibited here together. The 16 black and white drawings, along with one sketch and one colored piece, will be exhibited in Atlanta when the current show at Monfort's ends on Dec. 31.

Both Lance and Pat will continue to exhibit at Monfort's.