Art Lies, Volume 11, June-September 1996 Page: 46
50 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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TEXAS ABSTRACTS ...
TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY, COLLEGE STATION, TX.
by Dick Davison
t seems that many in the art community have come
to consider abstraction as an elitist art form. One
would assume that this is in contrast to an art form o
that is accessible to all (i.e., propaganda)? This
debate re-emerged in the wake of the recent Guggen-
heim show, "Abstraction...", and has the opportunity to
generate some regional discussion with an exhibition . .
that is most recently at Texas A & M University.
Curated by Francis Colpitt and currently touring to
several Texas venues, "Texas Abstracts: New Painting Michael Miller, Untitled, 1995, acrylic and oil on paper
in the Nineties" gives a fine view of abstraction in the 26x24 inches
state. The show is beautifully installed by TAMU Col-
lections and Exhibitions director Cathy Hastedt and
crew, in perhaps the best exhibition space in Texas
outside of the major cities. (This would come as a
surprise to many, I expect). This exhibition originated<a
and debued at ArtPace in San Antonio, then to the
McKinney Avenue Contemporary in Dallas. It will be 0
at A & M through June 9. .
Colpitt states that her choices of artists (there are -, l
twelve artists, each showing two or three pieces) were - B
specifically in a post-modern vein, in opposition to a
more expressionistic sensibility that typically charac-
terizes Texas art. The work is, by and large, man-
nered and idiosyncratic, with varying degrees of irony
and poetry, finesse or self-conscious absence of
finesse.
Here is a one-liner rundown of the artist' work. If
we start from the most controlled works, we will have Laurent Boccara, Alchemy: Section, 1995,
to start with the object-like panels of Shawn Wallis, oil on canvas, 48x48 inches
which are severe and restrained like tombstones, hav-
ing a subtle graphic skin which makes for a curious
softness to the otherwise stoic pieces.
The consummately subtle paintings of John
Wilcox, whose use of carefully layered color and, in
some cases, collage, create a variant on the "Ulti-
mate" paintings of Rothko or Reinhart.
Joe Mancuso's round, layered mandalas (which,
by their fabrication, are somewhat sculptural as well)
create a strong tension between the notion of a cen-
tralized image having a focus and an image that
defies pictorial conventions. o
Susie Rosmarin blends apparent order and
apparent chaos in her arithmetically derived composi-
tions. The work in the show, Number schematic, is a
complimentary pair of black-on-white and white-on-
black canvases which impress one with their geomet-
rical undertones and high degree of finish.ArtLies 11 - 4
Arron Parazette, Essex Market, 1995,
oil & enamel on canvas, 48x48 inches
June - September
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Calledare, Donald. Art Lies, Volume 11, June-September 1996, periodical, June 1996; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth228042/m1/46/: accessed April 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .