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Arts
& Living
Varied
Exhibits Offer Narratives
By Eric Ernst
| (11/1/2007)
With
decades and light years between them in terms of technique,
scope and intent, both the Gertrude Greene exhibit at
Spanierman Gallery in East Hampton and the group show
“Chick Flicks” at Sara Nightingale Gallery
in Water Mill nevertheless offer tableaus within which
the viewer is able to create narratives as much out of
what can’t be seen as what is physically present.
Ms. Greene was the wife of painter Balcomb Greene and
is currently the object of historical reappraisal in
the art world. She was an early American adherent of
the power and artistic impact of pure abstraction and,
like the constructivists and artists of the Russian
avantgarde, felt that social concerns were paramount
in the creative process.
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| Striving
for geometric purity in art that would light the way
for reordering society along more egalitarian and lofty
planes, she initially strove to eliminate from her work
any explanatory, anecdotal or naturalist elements.
This
is particularly apparent in the earliest works on view
in the Spanierman exhibit, such as “Black and
White Construction” (wood construction, c. 1942)
and a series of collages from 1936.
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Gertrude
Green's "Black and White Construction" is on view in an
exhibition of the artist's work at the Spanierman Gallery
in East Hampton. |
| As
the work evolved, though, by the 1950s she had adopted
more expressionistic techniques that, while reminiscent
of constructivist principles in her evocation of architectonic
space, yielded more immediately emotional effects. This
is apparent even in works such as “Structure and
Space (Yellow)” (oil on canvas, c. 1950-56), which
still emphasize the influence on Ms. Greene of abstract
artists like Piet Mondrian but which also are more profoundly
gestural in the manner of Franz Kline and other expressionist
painters of the period.
This
excerpt was taken from the article written in The Southampton
Press on 11/1/2007. Visit www.southamptonpress.com.
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