Summer shows often have the aspect of samplers: worthy assortments of the familiar. The selection of modernist abstractions at Spanierman Modern, however, is particularly appealing on account of the earnestness and directness of the work by 20 American painters, both celebrated and lesser-known. Exploring styles ranging from Neo-Plasticism to Abstract Expressionism, the paintings will be rotated periodically during the course of the exhibition.
SKI by John Ferren at Spanierman Modern’s Gallery Selections.
Among the several Mondrian-influenced works is Burgoyne Diller’s large “Second Theme” (ca. 1960), which asserts its heroic intentions with bold red, yellow and white verticals on a black ground. Using the same basic palette to more subtle (and more rewarding) ends is Ilya Bolotowsky’s smallish canvas from 1975. Here, slight shifts in the tone of the whites amplify the rhythmic movement from one broad yellow rectangle to a smaller one at the canvas’ corner. Among the most recent works, Pat Lipsky’s “Mandible” (2005-09), a large canvas of pulsing vertical bands of gray and gray-blue, creates an impression at once elegant and grave. My own favorite among the geometric abstractions is a work confined to whites and blacks: Gertrude Greene’s wood relief from ca. 1942, in which a central black polygon stretches to encompass a perimeter-busting white quadrangle at one end and a shiver of black fragments at the other. By comparison, the anthropomorphic Cubism of “Orient” (undated) by her husband Balcomb Greene seems a colorful but somewhat conventional stab at epic lyricism.
Among the expressionistic approaches, Dan Christensen’s “Red Liner” (1970) stands out for its intrepid divisions between textured areas of purple, yellow and pale blue-green. Larry Poons’ tall, untitled canvas from 1969 resembles a lunar surface with its thick, beige layer of swirling, crackled paint. Occupying the front window, John Ferren’s “SKI” (1952) reveals an agile circulation of rough circles and small vertical bars—each a slightly different conglomeration of reds, ochres or blues—around a vibrant field of off-whites. It encapsulates the faith in pictorial possibilities that animates the best work of the exhibition.
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Selections through Aug. 1 at Spanierman Modern, 53 E. 58th St. (betw. Madison & Park Aves.), 212-832-1400.
