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The center of the earth is what Professor Lidenbrock was looking for in Jules Verne’s 1864 novel "A Journey to the Center of the Earth," and it is also what Larry Poons was looking for in 1969 with his encrusted topographical paintings. What Lindenbrock and Poons have in common, is that they are seeking to find the essence of humanity through the geographical.
Through a Greenbergian approach, I’ve selected artists who have found what they are seeking. The layers and textures of applied paint are symbolic markers of their journey. Each brushstroke is the next step in finding the truth, and thus, the essence of their personal artistic voyage. Although their final products can only be viewed through the postmodern beliefs of Roland Barthes’s reception theory; each painting is symbolic to the artist in their own way. It’s up to the viewer to interpret the work through their own ideas, cultural background and life experiences.
They are experimenting with linear geometry to find balance and unity through the use of preexisting shapes and forms, and through rhythm and balance. The rhythm of the compositions appear to be accidental, like most Abstract Expressionist works, but some are actually very calculated. A few of the paintings are created from a pencil drawn grid and the placement of the elements are carefully calculated. It seems easy to just think of these works as intensely colored accidents, but they are more complex than that. Form, rhythm, balance, geometry, science, the natural world and the hand of each artist all come into play. Like many modern painters they’re experimenting with what a painting can be.
Their interest in the surface texture of the works are prominent, but the references to nature come out strongly in all of the paintings. These works aren’t just representations of nature, they are nature. They are from the dirt – they are the oxides that compose the earth’s crust. The paint is the materials that make up the dirt, both in element and in texture. They are gritty, textured and organic. The geographical references are clever, but one would immediately wonder the location the artists are representing. The surfaces of the paintings – dark, textured and often muted – actually look like layers of earth’s interior. It’s quite astonishing that these artists are able to achieve such a texture using the influence of nature.
Flowing lines and forms combined with measured and assumed properties of space and unity bear the mathematical. Gravity forces the paint to assume the linear. They find a system on the canvas in front of them, and they stop when they see something they like, and that something is typically unity. Although spontaneous, they are calculated through process, repetition and learned craft.
Humans are always exploring their environment, whether it be a new city, the planet they call home, or even their own unconscious. This is what the artists in Center Of The Universe are aiming for through automatism. Through the act of painting, they strive to tap into their deepest emotions, from the highest highs to the lowest lows, and transfer these feelings into a visual form.
Robert Berry
Curator
Charles Phillips "Red Dot Line" |
