Harriet Korman “New Work”

Thomas Erben Gallery

poster for Harriet Korman “New Work”

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Thomas Erben Gallery presents Harriet Korman’s fourth showing with the gallery, which includes a solo presentation of her work at the 2021 edition of Art Basel Miami Beach. These new paintings and drawings are the latest result of a practice spanning more than 50 years. In Korman’s words:

“In this current series, I drew to find a form I wanted to work with. These drawings are not studies, I consider drawing to be an equal practice to painting and value them as such. While drawing, I chose a very simple, familiar form of concentric rectangles because it seemed like it would be an interesting challenge. I took that form into painting without referring to the drawings, and later used the drawings as sources for the paintings.

I try to capture the dynamic in the drawings; the color relationships, the proportions, the movement – what attracts me in the drawing, not copy it. This interpolation has many obstacles, pitfalls, inconsistencies and idiosyncrasies, but ultimately is very engaging.”

The friction that results from this process is the source of the work’s enigmatic allure, forming a space which only the eye (and the mind) can traverse. Form, for Korman, is more than just an aesthetic problem: it embodies the very substance of painting and the chimerical nature of art.

Cézanne once wrote in a letter to Emile Bernard, that the “sole and unique aim” of his work as a painter was “the realization of that part of nature which, coming into our line of vision, gives the picture … the image of what we see.” Far from a theory of art’s subservience to nature, what Cézanne tries to articulate in this passage is a view of art arising from the same metaphysical substance as nature, partaking of the same vital essence.

For Cézanne, the task of the painter is to discover the liminal point at which the material components of painting dissolve into a vision. Similarly for Korman, painting “represents everything … an abstract illusion … an illusion of … thought.”

Confronted with the vibrant presence of Korman’s paintings, one gets the feeling that her work, despite its warmth and sensitivity — despite its aestheticism — harbors a challenge to the viewer, suggesting a field of meaning beyond perception of the forms at hand. More than just exhibiting an extreme formal inquiry, Korman’s paintings administer a spiritual shock.

Media

Schedule

from February 24, 2022 to April 09, 2022

Artist(s)

Harriet Korman

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