Frances Barth "Scale, Economy and Unnamable Color"
Sundaram Tagore Gallery
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New York-based artist Frances Barth lures viewers into imaginary landscapes of shifting scale and multiple viewpoints in her first solo exhibition at Sundaram Tagore Gallery. Her abstract paintings are at once flat surfaces and immense panoramas. Reinventing the picture plane, Barth uses expanses of color and sparsely drawn lines to imply both space and time. This vibrant new body of work investigates the history of painting and challenges perceptions of space.
Barth studied painting at Hunter College, New York, and first came to prominence in the 1970s. In tandem with abstract artists of her generation, she turned away from a purely illusionistic rendering of space. Her early works were horizontal paintings of thinly applied fields of color. Exploring the possibilities of painterly space, she created radically abstract geometric compositions. Barth sought to lengthen the time viewers spent reading her works. This gave rise to perplexing environments with narrative qualities.
The artist's recent paintings draw inspiration from geological landscapes, the passage of time, and the behavior of light. The works are akin to the floating worlds of Ukiyo-e woodblock prints from Japan. Dislocating viewers, Barth creates landscapes that are miniature and monumental within a single terrain. She is acutely aware of viewers' perceptions of space. In an instant, she brings us to soaring heights offering an aerial perspective then suddenly plummets below ground. Barth's luminous paintings guide viewers through spaces that not only shift, slide, and surprise, but also manage to tell a story.
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Schedule
from January 07, 2010 to February 06, 2010