“Abstraction allows man to see with his mind what he cannot physically see with his eyes… Abstract art enables the artist to perceive beyond the tangible, to extract the infinite out of the finite. It is the emancipation of the mind. It is an explosion into unknown areas.” – Arshile Gorky

Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective
October 21, 2009 – January 10, 2010
2010 Philadelphia Museum of Art

• www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/337.html

Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective celebrates the extraordinary life and work of Arshile Gorky (about 1902–1948), a seminal figure in the movement toward abstraction that transformed American art. This exhibition, which includes about 178 works of art, surveys Gorky’s entire career from the early 1920s until his death by suicide in 1948. The retrospective includes paintings, sculpture, prints, and drawings—some of which are being shown for the first time—and reveals Gorky’s development as an artist and the evolution of his singular visual vocabulary and mature painting style.

Here are a couple of photos of one of my new – thus far untitled – paintings in progress.

I’m not sure if it is done yet, but I like where it’s going. I’ll let this one sit until Phase 3  – if there is to be one – makes itself known.

Updated March 8, 2010

Phase 3

After working on this other painting, I decided that the surface seemed too thin or weak, and I worked on this painting once more. I think the palette in this iteration is much richer.

Here are two photos of a recently completed painting in the ongoing Sebastian Series.

Phase 1 – 2007 – “Black Site”

Acrylic and collage on canvas
20″ x 16″
2007

Phase 2 – November 2009 – “Questioning”

Acrylic, collage and block print on canvas
20″ x 16″
2009

Here is a painting that has gone through quite a few re-workings.

Phase 1 – A first layer of old journal pages is laid down, and some earthy-colored shapes are added.

Phase 2 – New collage layers are added in the attempt to create an entry point, a new center of focus. The figure, arguably the previous focal point, recedes into background. Additional paint obscures large portions of the journal text.

Phase 3 – The main focal point of the previous version is largely obliterated, and new text added from a different source.  The figure is further obscured by the addition of the kouros image on the right. The painting becomes increasingly dark and murky, and I set it aside.

Phase 4 – After moving to a new studio, I do a radical re-working of the picture with major changes to the palette and the submersion of much of the previous version. A few collage elements from Phase 2, as well as the text and kouros from Phase 3 remain.

Phase 5 -  I toned down the high-keyed palette and quieted the overall composition with large areas of texture and more subdued colors. All of the original journal text has now been completely covered. Nothing, in any real sense, remains of the first phase.

Is it done? I’m not sure, but I have once again set it aside, and it feels more done than at any another point since the first one. I admit I kind of miss the embryonic form, but I like where it is now.