ERIC HOLZMAN at Sideshow

Eric Holzman, Miyazaki Sunset, 2007, 71 x 46 inches, oil, sand chalk on canvas

Eric Holzman, Miyazaki Sunset (Detail), 2007

So many painters are constantly trying to come to terms with the so-called "weight" of art history -- either by distancing themselves or by selectively lifting references, or through myriad other "strategies". But in the paintings of Eric Holzman, the distinctions that separate past from present and future become irrelevant -- the history of painting is not a burden to bear but an arena of perpetual richness, a place to dwell.

At Sideshow in Brooklyn, through December 20, is an exhibition featuring a group of Eric's recent paintings (as well as some wall sculptures by Tracy Heneberger). Holzman is showing four large canvases, and one small piece along with a few small works on paper. Each of the large paintings is a tour de force of engagement with the elemental properties of painting, and with the artist's own sensate world. To call these paintings landscapes would be to severely limit their scope -- although indeed the subjects are trees, light, color. But as though zoomed in to a one inch portion of the distant horizon in a Titian, then blown up to 8 feet high -- Holzman's central tree image is inseparable from the teeming atmosphere and the kinetic surface, all unified by a patina of light. Holzman builds his images with a chalky mixture of oil paint and grit, layer after layer, in a constantly mutating dance of color resonances and shifting shapes -- achieving a heightened intensity of shimmering color and sensual space that is truly hallucinatory. The tension between the chunky roughness of the surface and the flowing softness of the space holds the image in a kind of vibrating stasis. These are not paintings about the appearance of landscape, but about its abiding spirit -- and about painting's ageless ability to embody the best of human spirit.

Eric Holzman, Pink Sky, Tree #6, 2006-2009, 83 x 65 inches, oil, sand, chalk on canvas

Eric Holzman, Miyazaki Sunset, Matsu, 2006-2007, 54 1/2 x 69 inches, oil, sand chalk on canvas

Ranking Reverb #1:MARTIN, MARDEN, PALERMO, TRUITT

When I was a kid, my brother and I used to speculate endlessly about what combination of great musicians would comprise the ultimate dream band. In that spirit, and just for fun, Ranking Reverb is conceived as an occasional series of online exhibitions -- dream shows if you will. So here is the first -- a group of Ranking artists who pioneered primary structures while exploring the nuances of materiality and color.

To quote Louise Fishman, "Agnes Martin is the Buddha". Her paintings are the visual equivalent of breath -- the weave of the canvas, dry pencil line, light wash of translucent color -- silent, still, inclusive -- nothing and everything. They convey an expansive stasis, an ineffable wholeness in the humble and patient frankness of her process.

Brice Marden's early monochromes and color panel paintings were at once conceptually rigorous and deeply sensual. His heavily worked oil and beeswax surfaces were inhabited by rich hybrid or fugitive colors arrived at through a process that was steeped in tradition and buzzing with intelligent intuition. As his configurations became more complex, his color became more adventurous, and impeccably refined -- and always surprising.
In the late 60s, Blinky Palermo arrived at an exquisite integration of color and material with his fabric paintings -- not really paintings, but colored fabric mounted on stretchers. He would continue to develop these concerns, exploring the inherent properties of various materials, shapes and colors, evolving into his last and most important work, To the People of New York City, which was shown at Heiner Friedrich in NY just after the artist's death in 1977. It was a concise group of paintings on aluminum panels with simple paired combinations of red, yellow and black, now permanently installed at Dia Beacon. In it's original setting at the Friedrich Gallery, the installation was a highly charged arrangement of stark and beautiful relations that revealed the mysterious associative power of color and material in an entirely new way.

Anne Truitt was a singular, and often overlooked figure in the world of sculpture, making works that I consider to be 3-dimensional paintings. Though certainly sculptural in their declarative presence, her elemental configurations employ a beautiful integration of color and shape as a source of archetypal resonance.

Ranking Reverb #1

Agnes Martin, The Sea, 2003, 60" x 60", acrylic & graphite on canvas

Agnes Martin, Gratitude, 2001, 60" x 60", acrylic & graphite on canvas

Agnes Martin, Untitled #21, 1988, 60" x 60", acrylic & graphite on canvas

Brice Marden, The Dylan Painting, 1966, 60" x 120", oil & beeswax on canvas

Brice Marden, Grove Group IV, 1976, 72" x 108", Two panels, oil & beeswax on canvas

Brice Marden, Elements V, 1982, 84" x 51", Four panels, oil on canvas

Brice Marden, Thira, 1979-80, 96" x 180", 18 panels, oil & beeswax on canvas

Blinky Palermo, Stoffbild, 1969, 200cm x 200cm, cotton fabric over stretcher

Blinky Palermo, Stoffbild, 1969, 200cm x 200cm, cotton fabric over stretcher

Blinky Palermo, Stoffbild, 1969, 200cm x 200cm, cotton fabric over stretcher

Anne Truitt, Catawba, 1962, 42" x 60" x 11", acrylic on wood
Anne Truitt, Watauga, 1962, 46" x 56" x 7", acrylic on wood

Anne Truitt, Twining Court, 2001, 70 1/4" x 8" x 8", acrylic on wood

"We hope you have enjoyed the show!"

In the Studio: Update 3

I'm in the final stages of the large commissioned piece for the lobby of the Hines Building in NYC. I've loosely documented the process here. The last steps involve a series of washes applied over the entire surface. This is an essential adjustment of the sheen of the surface and an introduction of another level of color and surface nuance into the larger image.

Work in Progress, one of 4 canvases, 96" x 96" overall

Before the washes, the surface appears quite smooth and shiny in a way that reads like plastic (which of course it is). If you imagine the painting as a musical passage, it would be played on a cheesy Casio keyboard - clean, bright and synthetic. The washes drastically change the timbre of the image -- so the same passage is now played on an electric guitar -- dirty, full of overtones and reverberations. The color is slightly dulled, the surface is much more matte, and the irregularities of the surface are emphasized. And just as the volume, distortion and sustain of the guitar melt the individual notes into a slab of sound, the washes tend to unify the image into a slab of color.



The paint is applied with a little hunk of plastic that is made for finishing grout. I went into a mild panic last year when Home Depot stopped carrying them -- luckily I found another source.
Here is a detail of the bottom edge after the first wash -- still wet. Installation of the painting has been delayed again as they are still finishing renovations of the space -- now it looks like early November. More updates to come.

In the Studio: Update 2

Work In Progress, 96 x 96 inches, four canvases, Hines Building Commission

Once the color relations are established, it becomes a slow and tedious process of building up the surfaces so that they read as a skin. Working back and forth from one canvas to the next, applying very thin layers of paint, the tooth of the canvas is eliminated, but many irregularities in the thick initial layers remain visible. I'm not interested in a flawless surface -- it's still paint. Later, the washes I will apply at the end tend to emphasize those irregularities.

Installation of the painting is now scheduled for mid-October -- so things are pretty much on schedule. I'll finish the painting during the next few weeks, then work out all the details of bolting the canvases together while the paint cures. More to come...

In the Studio: Update 1

Work In Progress, 96 x 96 inches, Hines Building Commission

The second stage, following my previous post, in the progress of a new 8ft square commissioned painting. After numerous layers and alterations, I've pretty much arrived at the color configuration. From this point, there will be a few more color tweaks, and many more layers of paint to build the surface up to a fairly smooth skin.