MATTERA, BECK & LAKE

Not a '70s prog-rock band -- but three wonderful painters who also devote a great deal of time to creating thoughtful and informative art blog posts. All three have recently posted outstanding pieces.

Joanne Mattera gives us a masterful virtual tour of the Geo/Metric show at MoMA, complete with amazing photos that take us step-by-step through this remarkable installation, accompanied by Joanne's excellent and insightful comments about the work.

Kate Beck features a meditation on the color orange, and includes numerous abstract paintings as examples -- including one of my own (thanks Kate).

Eva Lake relates a fascinating story about the great Hannah Hoch, and profiles her life and work with some very fine examples of her collages.

EVA LAKE's Richter Scale

Eva Lake, Richter Scale, 2007, 12" x 528"

Portland painter, interviewer, blogger, and all-round art pro-activist, Eva Lake has created a truly wonderful piece called Richter Scale. It is comprised of 44 separate paintings, each 12" square, installed in a line. Each painting is made in oil, and employs a fairly simple color situation that is a blended array between two hues of extreme contrast with a horizontal seam across the middle of the panel. The top half and the bottom half modulate in opposite directions and meet in the center. Sounds pretty basic, but the effect far outweighs the ingredients. The center horizontal "fault line" becomes the site of a bombardment of high energy visual tension and release -- color at its expansive, anarchistic, psychedelic best -- vibrating and modulating unpredictably with utmost intensity across the wall and in the brain. As a metaphoric object and as a visual experience, Richter Scale is a glorious and ambitious assertion of the potency of painting.