ABOUT DANIEL
DANIEL SAMUELS, FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ART, was one of the few painters invited to submit his paintings for the Tate Gallery Permanent Collection. His work was also featured in the Royal Society of British Artists' 268th Annual Exhibition in 1985 at The Mall Gallery in Central London. His American shows included presentations in New York, Washington D.C., New Orleans and Houston.
As a young man, Daniel, as he is known, became an apprentice artist articled to a fine studio of publicity and advertising artists. He was engaged in every aspect of art and craft in the world of theatre, cinema and general advertising. After five years, Daniel began a career as a figure artist and colour designer in the studios of the leading lithographic colour printers in London. Within three years he had achieved early promotion to art director.
Prior to the outbreak of World War II, he was fortunate to have the friendship of some outstanding men considerably older than himself. They included the renowned Walter Richard Sickert who was schooled by James Whistler and who lived and worked with Edgar Degas. Sickert gave great encouragement to Daniel, as did Barnet Freedman, Professor of Painting at the Royal College of Arts, and Charles Genge, Curator of the Teaching Faculty at the Royal Academy School.
Daniel dreamed always of a time when he could paint without commercial obligations. The opportunity arose in 1969, when years of hard work and planning were terminated by a serious heart attack. As he lay quietly recovering, Daniel gratefully accepted his chance to keep faith with himself. He promised his Maker that he would devote himself to a painterly interpretation of the classical mythologies. This new inspired attitude to life was born of a strange experience which occurred a few days after his admittance to the hospital:
IN A PANORAMIC SEQUENCE, DANIEL WAS SHOWN THE SHAPE OF HIS DESTINY. He remembers waking out of a deep sleep in which he was both present and also worlds away; in that state of being, he received the wisdom of unseen friends and their assurance of a new life. His journey through the dark tunnel of night revealed his vocation - he could now reach into the secret depths of himself for the hidden philosophy of future paintings. Details of technique, method and style, hitherto untried, were inexplicably resolved and symbolically presented to him.
At last the time came for Daniel to commence painting. His years of study and love for the Greek Classics provided the basis for his work, sparked into life when he was 17 years old by a chance encounter in the British Museum. One morning, in the Egyptian Galleries, he was standing before the Nimrod Statues, completely absorbed. He felt identified with the period, strangely moved and disturbed. Standing by his side, a stranger seemed to sense a kindred spirit, and when he spoke it was as if to recall Daniel from another world. Confidence was quickly established between them and the stranger introduced Daniel to the Greek Galleries, the Elgin Marbles and Greek Mythology. At once a spiritual rapport with the Ancient Greeks became the all-important single and obsessive influence in his young life. In describing the strange feeling of belonging which at once enveloped him, Daniel reveals that, in his consciousness, the very stones had life and ancient gods still lived in them, enacting their parts in a timeless pageant.
The stranger who awoke in him this spiritual communion with the ancient Greeks was Aircraftsman Shaw. Within three months he was dead, tragically killed in a motorcycle accident. Daniel then learned that his friend was the legendary Lawrence of Arabia, archaeologist, historian, writer, soldier and national hero; and, of course, the Classical Greek scholar.
DANIEL HONORED HIS RESOLUTION. His first one-man exhibition in 1970 at the Hilton Gallery in Park Lane, London, was a sell-out on the opening night. An important exhibition in the New Cavendish Street Gallery of Munchick & Franks followed with similar results. Negotiations for an exhibition in the United States soon led to Daniel's establishment as a major artist in our time.
Daniel's first United States exhibition in Washington was also an enormous success. He was firmly launched on his new career. His work was particularly admired by an important American art dealer, Kurt E. Schon, who brought Daniel's unique paintings to the attention of American collectors. Mr. Schon soon arranged for a number of exhibitions and receptions to be held in America. For some who met him, the personal impact was incredible. To many who bought his work and met him, he seemed gifted with second sight. Those who met Daniel and bought his work discovered he already intuitively knew a great deal about them. They also discovered that the gods and heroes of Daniel's paintings were not thousands of miles and thousands of years away, but intimate with him. Daniel freely told of meeting Sappho, clad in a tunic and carrying a golden lyre. Day-dream or fact; he alone knew.
Daniel's paintings somehow speaks to you, has a message for you, communicates with you. The articulation between a painting and its viewer is truly on a mystical level. I vividly recall acquiring my first Daniel painting twenty-five years ago. As a plastic surgeon, I appreciated the fidelity of Daniel's representation of the slightest human gesture - the bend of an elbow, the curve of a breast, the turn of a wrist. And, as a collector, I thrilled at finding an artist whose work reflected a striving for perfection.
Lewis J. Obi, MD, FRSA
COLOURS, LIKE WORDS, ARE CHIILDREN, YET THEY ARE THE FOUNDING FATHERS OF ARTICULATION. THEY DANCE IN HARMONY TO REVEAL THEMSELVES IN PAINTERLY EXPRESSIONS ON CANVAS, WHICH IN REALITY IS A CHILD OF MY REBIRTH. PAINTING AND PAINTER ARE WOVEN INTO A PATTERN OF INFINITY. PAINTING IS AN ANTICIPATORY JOURNEY TO THE BEGINNING OF ONE'S INNER SELF, WHERE UNTOLD CHALLENGES, FRUSTRATIONS AND JOYS ARE DAILY HARVESTED.
MIDNIGHT OIL BURNS IN HOMAGE TO PHOEBE; AN OWL GREETS NOCTURNAL TIDE AND THE PERENNIAL HARBINGER HERALDS THE COCKEREL'S CLARION CALL BIDDING GODSONS AND DAUGHTERS OF THE MUSES TO THE FESTIVE BOARD OF THE MASTERS AT THE HOUR OF CREATIVE RENEWAL. PLEDGING CUPS ARE RAISED TO THE QUEST FOR PERFECTION. . .AND I, BY GRACE, CONTINUE IN PURSUANCE OF THE OATH ENGRAVED IN THE HEART OF EVERY ONE OF MY PAINTINGS.
- DANIEL
A 1975 QUOTE BY DANIEL:
“On one of my midday visits to the British Museum in 1935, as I stood gazing in wonder at the Nimrod five-legged, human-headed winged creatures leading to the gates of Assyria, a voice from behind me brought me out of my reverie....`Transported!', the voice said quietly.' On looking around, I saw standing there a small man with bright blue eyes that literally pinned me to the winged creature. The man began explaining the Assyrian works and then asked if I had seen the Elgin Marbles.” “I spent almost five hours with the gentleman, and it changed my life. I was so impressed that until this very day - forty years later - I remember every moment. I asked if he would inscribe his name in my book and, when I looked at his signature, it was ‘Aircraftsman Shaw.' And I made a list of different records of music, books and poetry he recommended. I had received the education of a lifetime and the baptism into my lifetime of study.” “I never saw Shaw before or since. Some months after that I saw in the newspaper, ‘T. E. Lawrence of Arabia killed in motorcycle crash.' The photograph showed Aircraftsman Shaw.”
Christopher Wright Forward to the 1986 Lithograph Addition
The following was enclosed with a letter from Daniel written on June 16, 1986. Christopher Wright, world famous art historian and writer, has been a constant friend and admirer of Daniel since 1969. The following critique of Daniel was apparently written sometime in 1986 just prior to Daniel's letter of 6/16/86 A detailed curriculum vitae of Christopher Wright was also included in this letter with the following description by Daniel...”I have included the pages on Christopher Wright for you in case you wish to use any bit of information re his achievements. He has been interviewed at length in Sunday Times, Apollo, Connoisseur and all the major art magazines. Sotheby's and Christys seek his opinion often as do all the important dealers and art galleries. He is only 41 and already considered as a leading personality in the world of art.”
`Daniel', as he signs his paintings, is a latter day adept in the mould of the old masters. The renaissant quality inherent in his canvases place him unquestionably on a plinth of his own; his creative interpretations of personal dreams and visions are masterpieces, each one a statement of other-worldly timelessness. Both his paintings and stories offer more than a clue to Daniels erudition. Ancient cultures and civilizations, - particularly the classical Greeks are the love and study of his lifetime. Not surprisingly, Olympians, Gods and Heroes have preeminence over their modern counterparts where he is concerned. He has said “To know the present and see the future one needs to understand the past”. His ability to journey beyond time and to be at oneness with Ancients, whom he literally celebrates on canvas, is an enervating and spellbinding experience.
Daniel Samuels
Daniel as an apprentice
Daniel in his art lab.
Dr. Obi with Daniel
Ellic Howe
“The improtance of Ellic Howe's writing has for many years been recognized by the English publishing world. There are several very interesting books to his credit besides his feature-writing, literary and art scene articles for the national periodicals. During World War 2 he played a leading part in the department of pychological war-fare after which his many years of research went into the “History of the Third Reich” and “Nostradamus”. Ellic Howe's interest in Daniel's paintings stems from his initial viewing of the artist's first one-man-exhibition at the Hilton Art Gallery, Park Lane, in 1970. His authoritive writing has earned him a reputation as a man of perceptive understanding, well qualified to write the introduction to a master painter.”
CHRISTOPHER WRIGHT FRSA
Daniel Samuels is one of the few artist working in Britain today who is brave enough to ignore the unwritten but nevertheless strict rules of modern art. His art has matured to a very personal and easily recognisable style which at the same time follows the traditions of the old masters and yet is unmistakeably of our own time. Daniel uses his imagination more than most living painters who at the present time are more and more obsessed with a record of the real world. Daniel's imagination is unique because it does not base itself on any of the existing imaginative traditions. The closest parallel in the twentieth century is the work of Salvado Dali, whose meticulous technique he rivals. Dali on the other hand is concerned with the juxtaposition of everyday objects and figures in disquieting and unearthly situations. Daniel goes further than that because his unreal and imagined figures occupy an idyllic world rather than a surreal one. The dream is therfore unusual because it creates an essentially welcoming world of lost antiquity.
LETTER FROM SEVENTH EARL SPENCER (family of Sir Winston Churchill)
“Excellent paintings, most interesting. One cannot put a label to this work. I know of nothing similar from the hands of other living artists. It is courageous to paint in so personal a reign in the face of prevailing fashions. The masterly influences in your work are I'm sure inspired by da Vinci, the style is unmistakably your own. I note some of the Subjects are bathed in a dream-like ethereal quality which I admire.”
Rhonda Tilbury-Davis ‘London Magazine' editor and feature writer. (From catalogue introduction to first exhibition of paintings and drawings at the London Hilton Gallery, 1970.)
“Daniel Samuels' visions are realised on canvases in which the great classicals are woven into a background of illusive shapes and colours. Awe-inspiring, mysterious and moving are just a few of the adjectives that may be used to describe his work. For those who love the ancient tales well told, this collection will more than generously reward them.
V. C. Geeson, Editor of ‘Hearth and Home' magazine. 1971.
“The eye is constantly wooed and won. These are beautiful pictures by any standards. Daniel's technique shows the unmistakable influence of Michaelangelo, but his style is original and narrative to boot. Without any doubt the quality of his work and his imaginative use of colour in depicting the enchanting stories he tells so well on canvas is making him one of the most respected artists of our time.”
LETTER FROM SEVENTH EARL SPENCER (family of Sir Winston Churchill)
“Excellent paintings, most interesting. One cannot put a label to this work. I know of nothing similar from the hands of other living artists. It is courageous to paint in so personal a reign in the face of prevailing fashions. The masterly influences in your work are I'm sure inspired by da Vinci, the style is unmistakably your own. I note some of the Subjects are bathed in a dream-like ethereal quality which I admire.”
Rhonda Tilbury-Davis ‘London Magazine' editor and feature writer. (From catalogue introduction to first exhibition of paintings and drawings at the London Hilton Gallery, 1970.)
“Daniel Samuels' visions are realised on canvases in which the great classicals are woven into a background of illusive shapes and colours. Awe-inspiring, mysterious and moving are just a few of the adjectives that may be used to describe his work. For those who love the ancient tales well told, this collection will more than generously reward them.
V. C. Geeson, Editor of ‘Hearth and Home' magazine. 1971.
“The eye is constantly wooed and won. These are beautiful pictures by any standards. Daniel's technique shows the unmistakable influence of Michaelangelo, but his style is original and narrative to boot. Without any doubt the quality of his work and his imaginative use of colour in depicting the enchanting stories he tells so well on canvas is making him one of the most respected artists of our time.”
