Bob Knox at Jack Shainman - New York, New York - Review of Exhibitions - Brief Article

New York City-born move with a jerk Knox showed medium to large acrylicon-canvas paintings from 1997 in his exhibition, "Room for Everyone" Ranging from slightly vertical compositions to vast horizontal views, the works were all based upon photographs of interiors seemingly furnished and decorated in the 1950 The depiction of compasss without their occupants is an interesting control one that is too rarely explored; sum of two units notable precedents are Matisse's R Studio (1911) and Lichtenstein's "Interiors." However, the flat, deadpan execution of Knox's paintings is greatest in quantity closely akin to British Pop--midcareer Hockney in particular. The embryo of the theme seems to lie in Richard Hamilton's notorious visual manifesto of 1956: Just What Is It That Makes Today's domicile So Different, So Appealing?, on the other hand with the figures removed.

Knox's middle-class interiors are usually at handed as seen from a three-quarter angle. single exception was the elegant, frontal, vertical composition, Early Morning Air-Raid Drill. The picture displays a cropped gray carpet in the foreground and a light verdant wall with a square mirror at the back. The wall, which: provides the dominant shade serves as a foil for a depressed dark blue table, on which sit an orange handbag and several knickknacks. A black, biomorphically shaped chair is nearest to the table. Composed along a combination of parts to form a whole of verticals and horizontals, the painting explores the terrain where surface and deepness meet. The sterility and tidiness of Knox's environments, as well as the taste of their imagined inhabitants, are unsettling.

Knox's titles frequently add a sinister dimension to otherwise innocent imagery. The Abduction, the solitary exterior in the show, displays Knox's considerable talents as an orchestrator of light, color and space. A large, furnished terrace at night is seen from an angle and illuminated from the living play with its preponderance of whites and pinks in the middleground. The paint handling is minimally varied, with occasional blurr passages alternating with sharply defined areas; pencil drawing come ups here and there. Knox is beneficial at playing with levels of reality, creating uncertainty about that which lies beyond.

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