NYAB Event - “Painting Toward Three Dimensions” Exhibition

“Painting Toward Three Dimensions” Exhibition

Galerie Richard

This event has ended.

Galerie Richard New York presents the exhibition, “Painting Toward Three Dimensions.” Despite cultural and geographical divides, Bram Bogart, Ron Gorchov, and Takesada Matsutani were motivated by the same intention to defy conventions of expression. Instead, their works exhibit a manifested artistic impulse founded upon respect for the spirit of the media.

Bram Bogart (Belgian) was instantly inspired by the paintings that he discovered in Paris upon moving there in 1946. Trained as a technical painter, he revisited his extensive knowledge of construction materials after returning to Belgium where he began experimenting with various media to apply thickness to his abstract works. Free of structural restrictions, the media began to surpass the frame. The exuberant autonomy of the media is celebrated through the liberation from the support.

Ron Gorchov (American) discovered that through reengineering the support structure, he was able to alter the interaction with not only the overlying painting, but with the viewers as well. The masses of paint balancing upon the convex or concave surface are perceived differently from varying angles. As a result, the viewer is encouraged to respond to the dimensionality of the sensuous structural curves, highlighted by rich, tactile strokes, in order to discover the painting’s full dynamic.

Takesada Matsutani (Japanese) drew initial inspiration for his organic forms from microscopic views of blood platelets in cellular tissues. He arrived at his choice medium of wood glue through an accidental spill; however, Matsutani reveled in the skin-like quality of the dried surface. The artist, a member of the Gutai group ('gu' means tool, ‘tai’: body), allows the glue to flow freely before inserting a straw into the mass. With his breath, Matsutani inflates the form into a viscous, bulbous being, “calling the material to life” (Gutai Manifesto, Jiro Yoshihara). Hence, Matsutani, along with Bogart and Gorchov liberated their art from the confines of representation through a fluently intuitive use of media. As a result, their paintings are works of pure creation and experimentalism. The artistic media and methods thus becomes the focus instead of a skillfully rendered copy of the recognizable. These artists forged new boundaries by allowing their creative conviction to penetrate the third dimension.

[Image: Ron Gorchov "Loggia" (1982) Oil on canvas on mounted wood. Courtesy Ron Gorchov and Galerie Richard]