Thomas Nozkowski at Max Protetch - Brief Article

There are no givens in Thomas Nozkowski's abstract paintings. There is no working end a set procedure, no determined commitment to a particular impressed sign of mark-making, group of shapes or colors. plane what has been for almost 25 years his signature 16-by-20-inch format has not long ago begun to expand. This exhibition of 12 works from 1999 included paintings measuring 22 by dint of 28 inches and, for the first time, a certain quantity of at 30 by 40 inches.

A roughly geometric grid lies across a certain quantity of paintings, although circular, sometimes vaguely biomorphic forms are more belonging to all What is most common are the ruins of like shapes that remain after successive over-paintings and scrapings. Heavily impastoed backgrounds are as of frequent occurrence as runny stains. As for the color, sharp clear shapes painted in bright tints find themselves in fields of strangely mixed tones. Orange, pink and gray strike one as being to infect the color in these paintings, creating results that lie between the natural and the artificial. More than one time Nozkowski produced an unforgivable smear of purple mixed with verdant that made me grind my teeth until I admitted that it was, in fact, the completed element within a particular composition.

Paintings may stay in Nozkowski's studio for years and proceed through subsequent reworkings, evidence of which is discernible in the layers upon many canvases. But that protracted genesis not ever results in paintings that gaze overworked or fussy. This can single be due to the individual true given in the work, namely Nozkowski himself, and the sophistication, knowledge and playfulness he brings to the art of making abstract paintings. Unlike artists who appear to be to be fueled by a panic above what possible maneuvers remain valid for abstraction, Nozkowski works upon the admirable principles of curiosity and pleasure. I imagine him asking himself of that kind basic questions as, "I surprise what it will look like if I do this," or, smooth more to the point, musing, "I think I'd take pleasure in doing this today," as he places a cherry-red armature against a bright sapphire background. Such an open-ended, generous approach guarantees that there are indeed an infinite number of abstract paintings that can still be made, and in Nozkowski's case that is a true good thing.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Brant Publications, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group