Brendan Cass is half the age of Larry Poons, and the younger artist seems to have little difficulty in essentially destroying all the old color field abstraction paradigms. Brendan's paintings utilize exuberant over the top color to re-explore the idea of landscape painting. It's a nice show, wear sunglasses. Brendan, check out the late Monet oil studies.
Brendan Cass
Askirkja 2009
Acrylic on Canvas
47 x 67 inche (119.3 x 170 cm)
Brendan Cass
Kopavogur 2009
Acrylic on Canvas
45 x 78 inche (114.3 x 198.1 cm)
Brendan Cass
Tuscany 2009
Acrylic on Canvas
72 x 132 inche (182.8 x 335.2 cm)
4 comments:
i think i bridle at the lack of discipline in these - evident color sense but he's having too much fun for my taste. Too extroverted.
So i guess fundamental I'm saying it's a personality conflict.
Just short of a spin painting.
At least it's not that.
Zip,
I get where you're coming from. I've had an ongoing debate with some of the old school lyrical abstractionists who I think are stuck in a deep rut. Brendan breaks away from the old paradigms, and although he has a way to go yet but I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt.
I saw Peter Doig's paintings at both galleries, The uptown exhibition was better than the one downtown which I thought was weak.
I also thought Poons, in the previous post, is onto something.
The shows were worth seeing, none of them touch on the things I'm interested in, but it was what's out there.
I find (more from looking than doing so maybe - fear) this way of thinking can be a trap - just as lack of quality materials can be an excuse not to paint, lyricism can be an excuse not to () take your pick:
think about refinement.
worry.
kick yourself for being shallow.
It's what I associate with new agey californians - which is actually kind of interesting in NY, where California and the west (Trader Joes, WHole Food foods, Buck Hunter)
has come and altered the landscape.
But there is something there .
Well, I tend to think this kind of painting can be a trap, it's too easy to get sucked into the niceties of refinement and decoration. What seems to occur is that all the paintings end up looking alike which can have a diluting affect. This seems more pronounced when the paintings are abstract. Monet, on the other hand, used the landscape to structure the pictorial space and allow his painterliness free reign.
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