170
PART ISAN R EVIEW
of paint. [ often respo nded mos t strongly to pictures w ith relatively nar–
row fo rmats, probabl y because ve rti cali ty , implying th e pull o f gravity on
paint, intensifies the physica li ty of the medium , but th ere were exceptions.
Mario ni 's dark pictures seemed the mos t resonant, espec iall y a dull gray
(squari sh) canvas that hea ted up as you wa tched . Aga in , there were excep–
tions: a small , smoldering red picture and a large glowing golden canvas,
like a thundering wa terfall of molten citrus. But all the pictures in thi s
wonderful show were no tabl e fo r their powerful presence, th eir sense of
immanence and
itmllitlls.
What furth er di stingui shes-and uni tes-Fishman and Mar ioni is
their impli cit assumpti on that the wordl ess language of " unmediated ,"
whole-hea rted painting remains eloqu ent, fl exibl e, and provocative, the
current tas te fo r alternative media and text-based wo rk no twithstanding.
In
some circles, thi s position is rega rded as tenable only by cultural
din osaurs, but it's in creasingly cl ea r that many se ri ous, ambiti o us,
YO llllger
arti sts share thi s beli ef. Witness Suza nn e McClelland 's recent show,
" mothertongues" at Paul Kasmin . Apparentl y provoked by the arti st's
ruminations on travel, di stance, and th e diffi culti es of communi cation , th e
exuberant canvases and fres h , direct wo rks o n paper had as mu ch to do
with painting languages as w ith verbal ones. O ne of McClelland 's
strengths is her abili ty to produ ce a remarkable range of expressive, vigor–
ous, often extremely delica te marks. In her recent pictures, she contradicts
that gift with bold, raw strok in gs, embl emati c repetiti o ns , and crypti c mes–
sages. T he larges t and possibly the bes t painting in th e show, an ampl e
expanse dominated by a chee rful , smudgy pin k, flirted w ith spati al allusion
and then cancel ed it wi th a self- deprecating "EN O UGH ," written bo th
forwa rd and backwa rd . At first, McClel land 's new wo rks seem uninhibit–
ed, energetic and hi gh-spirited, bu t they graduall y revea l themselves as
" darker"-brash, bu t a littl e anxio Lls, rather than wholly beni gn, w hi ch is
what keeps YO Ll thinking about th em .
Some of the power of John G ibson's new painti ngs at Wendy S. Hoff
Fine Arts derives, similarl y, fr0111 th eir add ressin g issues quite d iffe rent
from what th ey initially appea r to be about. Gibson has, Mo randi- like,
staked out a deliberately circ umscri bed ter ri to ry: a uni ve rse po pulated
excl usively by mo numental, often fa ntastic31ly p3ttern ed sph eres, some–
times presented singly, sometimes pa ired , sometimes pil ed in (as it turns
out) impossibl e constructi o ns. Gibson convinces you , at fi rs t, of the acc u–
racy o f hi s perceptions and the fi deli ty w ith whi ch he transcri bes them , bu t
hi s uncanny images soon move into ano ther realm . Dry, scraped paint lay–
ers and incised drawing pull you to the surface. Undisgui sed addi ti ons to
the canvas sharpen your awa reness of the shape of the picture and the pro–
po rti o n of sph ere to fi eld .
