LOUISE FISHMAN at Cheim & Read

Louise Fishman, Afloat in Mystic Blue, 2012, 51 x 30 inches, oil on jute

Louise Fishman, Afloat in Mystic Blue, detail

It is a much deserved big month for Louise Fishman, with a magnificent 50 year retrospective at the Tilton Gallery (although it should be a more inclusive museum show), and this knock-out exhibition of recent paintings at Cheim & Read (through October 27, 2012). The new work, which grew in part out of a recent residency in Venice, presents a focused palette of blues and greens and pinks, ostensibly inspired by her strolls around the waterways taking photographs and soaking up the history. But there is nothing soft and nostalgic in these paintings. Each work presents the evidence of a direct physical encounter between the artist and her medium, with Fishman's trademark rawness ever present. Great swaths of oil paint are slathered on, scraped off and pushed around to create undulating webs of blunt gestures that feel both haphazard and exactly right. As with much of Louise's work in recent years, the color white is the unifying force here -- both applied white and the white of untouched primer -- infusing the space with a shimmering translucence that breathes and flows. And although there is no shortage of angst and agitation in this exhibition, there is a distinct note of reverie as well.

Louise Fishman, Zero at the Bone, 2010, 70 x 60 inches, oil on linen

Louise Fishman, Zero at the Bone, detail

Louise Fishman, Assunta, 2010, 70 x 60 inches, oil on linen

Louise Fishman, Assunta, detail

Louise Fishman, Postscript, 2010, 50 x 29 inches, oil on linen

JOAN MITCHELL at Cheim and Read

Joan Mitchell, Yves, 1991, 110 1/4 x 78 3/4 inches, oil on canvas

Joan Mitchell, Sunflowers, Installation View, courtesy Cheim and Read

One of the most consistently intelligent and satisfying galleries in NY, Cheim and Read makes a habit of mounting shows that are "blue chip" in the best sense -- from last year's Bill Jensen and Pat Steir extravaganzas to the recent Milton Resnick, Louise Bourgoise and Juan Usle exhibitions. Now, as the extremely fortunate representative of the Joan Mitchell estate, the gallery offers another museum quality (or better) selection of great paintings by one of the all-time great painters. A bit younger than most of the first generation NY School hot dogs, Joan Mitchell is often considered part of the second generation. But her work is in a league of its own -- emerging out of the first generation Club without much support from the old boys, and without the professional coddling later afforded deKooning and others. She moved to France and built her own world and a towering body of tough and timeless work. It is always a privilege to see even one Joan Mitchell painting, so this show which includes numerous large-scale important works is simply a gift. The theme of the show is Sunflowers, and it features loosely related paintings, drawings and prints from the '60s through the early '90s. Every piece in the show is daring, open, rigorous, abundant -- the work of a master painter working in total integration with the deep experience of her world and the limits of her visual language.