November 9, 2006

By Eric Ernst

"Variation on Abstract Theme"

While reviewing the current exhibits at the Drawing Room and the Spanierman Gallery, both in East Hampton, I had to concede in fairly short order that while artists' ideas are usually unique, curators' concepts sometimes are not.

Basically, for those who might have read last week's review featuring the East End postwar abstraction exhibit in Bridgehampton, a parallel can be seen in an offering with a coincidentally similar theme that has appeared in a different venue.

While perhaps offering, from a curatorial standpoint, corroborating evidence of the truth in Goethe’s observation that “there is repetition everywhere, and nothing is found only once in this world,” the thematic consistency is also an indicator both of how broad and diverse the East End artist community has consistently been over the years, and of the continued interest in the ongoing art historical impact of this region.

Refreshingly, there is little redundancy in artists represented and each show is able to express legitimate streams in the evolution of regional abstraction that are valid. At the same time, in view of the differing cast of characters presented, to compare and contrast the two exhibitions ironically serves to point up the naked subjectivity at work in curating survey exhibitions such as these.

Nevertheless, due to the Spanierman Gallery’s more expansive exhibition area, the show there can legitimately claim to be a more inclusive and diverse exhibition than a smaller space can usually provide. As a result, there is more physical room for the artists represented as well as more conceptual space for the viewer to absorb the images.

Of particular interest is John Alexander’s “Dancing Skeletons” (watercolor on paper, 1980), which emits the same measure of painterly energy as his well known floral and garden studies, but carries, as the title suggests, a more darkly playful ambiance.

While figuratively expressed in the apparitional skeletons that flicker and float throughout the composition, the atmospheric impact of the work is mainly derived from the artist’s manipulation of positive and negative space. Organizing energetically charged colors and ominous black wisps to structure the canvas in a swirling cacophony that skillfully avoids veering into anarchistic incoherence, the artist has create a work that is dynamically theatrical.

Another work that draws power from the balance between positive and negative space is Ibram Lassaw’s “Black/White” (acrylic on paper, 1985). High-lighting interlocking geometric forms to provide the work’s planar dimensions, the abstract narrative progression is further enhanced by the elegantly rhythmic calligraphic images, linear elements that deftly orchestrate the work’s gentle ebb and flow.

Alphonso Ossorio’s “Slow Dance and Staccato” (missed media on canvas, 1955), on the other hand, uses a balance between colorful splashes of paint and vigorously charged slashes of color to create a sense of assertively writhing intensity. Pulsing with an almost religious fervor that is more pagan than pious, the work provokes a sense of mystery that is both disquieting and overwhelming.

Also of interest are works by Dan Christensen, Louis Schanker, Seymour Lipton, James Brooks, Jimmy Ernst, Gertrude Greene, and Frank Wimberley. The exhibition at Spanierman Gallery in East Hampton, titled “Long Island Abstraction: 1950s to the Present,” continues through December 11.

Meanwhile, even if one comes across curatorial redundancies in some spaces, that kind of thematic repetition is almost never the case at the Drawing Room in East Hampton. As the name suggests, the gallery’s dedication to highlighting the impact of drawing in the creative process has consistently resulted in the presentation of some of the most stylistically diverse exhibits in the region.

Currently featuring a group show of six artists for whom drawing plays a central role in the creative process, the gallery has once again come up with an exhibit that is startlingly cohesive, all the more so for the remarkable diversity in the characteristics and priorities of those represented.

Jameson Ellis’s recent works continue to reflect his interest in investigating the interplay and juxtaposition of linear geometric elements with gentle gradations of color. Using taut and tightly organized diagonals as a methodology of structure more architectonic than sheer abstraction, he is able, through his use of light, to conjure a powerful sense of expansiveness and depth in spite of the works’ diminutive size.

Similarly, in the works by Gloria Ortiz-Hernandez, while geometry is used as a central organizing image, the primary impact is derived from the artist’s use of illumination, which seems to emanate from deep within the images themselves.

Christine Hiebert, on the other hand, creates depth and distance less from her use of light than from the absolute dominance of negative space. Pulling the viewer’s eyes across the works through the interplay of linear components, Ms. Hiebert’s compositions are constantly invigorated by the empty space that directs the pictorial arrangements.

Also featured at the Drawing Room are works by Stephen Atnonakos, Sharon Horvath, and Joan Waltemath. The exhibition continues through December 23.