Some Pears



Some Pears (september 2011)

Book of paintings 1:1 scale from originals in oil on linen with an accompanying text by the artist. 1000 first edition copies.

photo Olivier Aubry

2. These pictures were made over the course of a year, during which, I also made works of a quite different nature.

6. The first pear was not painted to be part of a series (other than in a general sense as part of my sustained interest in still life). The second pear was a response to the first, a pendant, and follows most of the rules set forth in the prior painting.

11. A way of telling time.

19. In what sense are these paintings small? They are large enough for the fruits they depict to be presented two to three times the size of their real-world counterparts.

20. This enlargement would seem to encourage or imply close examination, but this closeness, this investigative approach, draws one back to the surface, to the skin of the paint and its economy of application. The primed canvas is so close.

27. What color do we see when thinking “Pear”? Is it the various blends of yellows, golds, greens, pinks, reds and russets of the skin or rather the pale flesh of the fruit, which is more consistent across varieties?

30. One of the pears painted was given as a dessert/gift of sorts, added to a order from a neighborhood Vietnamese restaurant.

32. One is from Argentina.

33. There is no longer a pear season; just a fluctuation in variety, price and country of origin.

34. Pre-historic and what is the nature of fidelity?

35. Do we imagine that new varieties will ever cease to be made?


Jonathan Kroll
Some Pears
32 X 48 cm, 32 pages
Printed in France
25 €


Jonathan Kroll

was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He has a BFA from the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, and attended the MFA program at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Since 1994 he has exhibited his art in galleries and art institutions in Los Angeles, Santa Fe, New York, Cologne and Berlin. He is also a musician and composer, a founding member of the independent rock band Chokebore, formed in Honolulu, Hawaii in the early 90’s. Since 2003, He has been writing and performing instrumental music under the name A Newborn Riot of Dreams; producing numerous compositions of a more personal, experimental and reflective nature.

Jon