John Zurier “A spring a thousand years ago”
Peter Blum Gallery
This event has ended.
On view are new monochromatic paintings created in 2012 and 2013, influenced in part by Zurier’s travels in Iceland. The title of the exhibition comes from a poem by the Icelandic poet Stefán Hörður Grímsson.
John Zurier explores colors and hues, nuances of light and shadow, and various atmospheres; by doing so he creates a material response to the phenomena of the natural world. His paintings are pared-down, lyrical and yet stark, highly poetic in their condensed expression of emotion and feeling.
His choices regarding the physical materials of the paintings — canvas or linen for the support, oil or distemper (dry pigments mixed with rabbit skin glue and water) — are influenced by traditional Japanese aesthetics, particularly mono no aware; late-medieval wall paintings in Swedish churches, as well as modern painters such as Cézanne, Matisse, Edvard Munch, and Franz Kline.
Above all, he is questioning the quality and meaning of painting. He aims to find the right balance between the raw materials (which he calls “the given”) and the transformation of these materials into the finished paintings. In doing so, he keeps the inherent quality of the materials present and visible.
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Schedule
from April 25, 2013 to June 29, 2013