Rene Pierre Allain at Stefan Stux - Brief Article

In his fresh steel "paintings," the New York-based Canadian Rene Pierre Allain continues to mine the metallic vein he has been exploring for several years: the bas-relief, that rich hybrid of painting and statuary The 14 works (all 1999) in the somewhat concourseed installation at Stefan Stux are erected out of steel sheets which have been manipulated to form slanted, angled and curv surfaces that are contained within substantial metal frames. From a distance, the reliefs may appear to be have the direction ofed by a strict bilateral regularity but closer inspection reveals a more complicated arrangement of planes. Oblique Carapace, for example, which at first appears to be composed of a large central panel flanked through two smaller identical panels, actually tenders a dialogue between what are gibbous and concave plates at either extreme point of the work.

This rather industrial esthetic is further moderated by the agency of Allain's painterly treatment of the carbonized iron which receives a patina of corrosive fire-arm blue, clear sealant and wax. The issue is a refined surface of nuanced darkness, ranging from blacks and grays to flinty sky-coloreds A mottled field is particularly evident in Caustic Carapace. Thus the artist sets contradictory forces into play: simplicity and complication, the weight of carbonized iron and the atmospheric surface quality, the sculptural and the painterly.

These are hybrid art works in the tradition of Donald Judd's "specific objects" on the other hand unlike his Minimalist predecessor, Allain instills a particular emotional charge in his work, something sinister, akin to a creeping faculty of perception of dread. A strong hint is provided by means of the term "carapace," which appears in all the titles and underscores the works' resemblance to a protective covering or armor. level without the verbal clue, these shadowy, heavy, almost overbearingly masculine works would move a world of weaponry and combat. single might say these paintings are as seductive as an automatic pistol: they put in action at least for this viewer, an uncomfortable attraction, occasion a guilty pleasure with their violent allure. The feeling may be similar to what was experienced by the agency of early viewers of Frank Stella's black paintings when they first meetinged the severity and evocative titles (remember Die Fahne Hoch?) of those dark slabs.

It has taken a of recent origin generation of feminist art historians to remind us of the bellicose relations in postwar American abstraction. Allain's Carapaces--like his earlier paintings, which were inspired by means of the abstract patterns of military insignia--engage knowingly with this history, positioning themselves as neither critique nor affirmation of similar masculine biases, but implicating the viewer in their martial elegance.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Brant Publications, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group