Noland's paintings shimmer and vibrate, underscoring the often-voiced comparison between them to musical harmonies and rhythms. They exemplify synesthaesia, that rare combination which results in a multiple sensory awakening.
Chac Mool Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of Paintings by the
inter-nationally acclaimed artist, Kenneth Noland.
In his long and distinguished career, Kenneth Noland has become recognized
as one of the finest masters of color after Matisse. His "Target
Paintings," iconic signs for some, simple, articulate frameworks for
exploration of color relationships for the artist, draw viewers into and
to them, because experiencing art "tends to be a floating experience.
It's as if you lose your sense of gravity." Beyond the "Targets" being
concentric bands of color set within a square space, they contradict and
yet define what Clement Greenberg called "post painterly abstraction" in
that the seemingly flat clarity of these paintings correspondingly merge
color areas with the canvas ground. No clean contours, no minimalist
ironies are evident. And color is both the object of the work and
consequently, its subject.
If the early paintings focused on clear and primary colors, Noland's color
experimentation has progressed toward pearlescence, iridescent metallic
and holography pigments as well as a kind of collage which allows the
application of color both beneath and above before affixing it to the
canvas. In Mysteries: Platinum (acrylic on canvas, 48 x 48 inches), the
silvery platinum square seemingly blends in with the concentric circles of
silver, dark gray and black, except for the rosy haze which emerges in the
left corner and corresponds with the bluish tones in the lower right, both
of which harmonize with the delicate pink circles that halos the black. A
blurred and yet intense gray horizontal line cuts through the entire
square. Asserting that rectangularity, strong intense lozenge-like
elements appear, in blue at the upper right, a deeper blue "x" or cross at
the lower left, and an orange-red and a green float in the almost white
center of the target itself.
Noland's paintings shimmer and vibrate, underscoring the often-voiced
comparison between them to musical harmonies and rhythms. They exemplify
synesthaesia, that rare combination which results in a multiple sensory
awakening.
Opening: Thursday, May 22, 6-9 pm
The artist will be
present at the opening
The exhibition opens
Thursday, May 22 and runs through July 12, 2003.
Image: Kenneth Noland, Outsider, Chac Mool Gallery Category, Acrylic on canvas
Chac Mool Gallery
8920 Melrose Avenue, West Hollywood, 90069
Phone 310.550.6792 Fax 310.550.6872