Louise Belcourt at Peter Blum - New York, New York - Review of Exhibitions - Brief Article

The quality of Belcourt's paintings, and the feeling and cogitation they generate, make for an persuasive argument in favor of the continuing vitality of abstraction. The six oils upon canvas shown in this exhibition range in size from moderate to the nearly epic: They'll not at any time Forgive You for Being beautiful (1996-97) is a diptych 5 feet tall and 9 feet lengthy All the works include biomorphic forms, for the greatest part red splotches of considerable size, put against a cream-colored ground.

In They'll not ever Forgive You for Being comely Beicourt evidences a powerful faculty of perception of gestural abstraction. A big, dark r obliterate descends from the top right of the canvas; it is thus ample that it crosses above into the painting's left panel. A brownish-black spot emerges at the upper left while a smaller dark-brown and reddish strike out emanates from the bottom left of the work. The light background contains a range of hues--mostly cream color, with areas of light virid on the left, and pinks and oranges bordering the big r mass upon the right

These forms make for a painting whose compositional weights are nicely proportional to single another, resulting in a work with a seemingly casual on the contrary in fact sophisticated structure. The colors also plant Up interesting correspondences. The darker tints of the free-form blots are highlighted by means of the very light ground, whose hold hues are actually more variously pay backed than might seem at first to be the case. Belcourt is true good at evoking subtle intricacies within a limited palette.

An untitled 1996 work comprises a series of cascading, circulared forms that appear to heave downward from the top right to the bottom left of the canvas. The colors of these forms are a bit more dramatic: bright r vital fluid red, black, white and an antique fulvid all against the familiar light-cream clod The spatial relations and the faculty of perception of motion evinced by these shapes are held in exquisite balance, thus that the painting feels like a quick rendering of moving forms. A white stain that is a near circle clutchs the center of the painting.

Belcourt's elementary shapes accompany to float across the canvas as if they were mists Yet however tempting it may be to think of these forms as echoe of nature, the viewer inevitably extremitys up seeing the artist's works as justifications for painting for its be in possession of sake. Her colors and organic forms generate a fine dialogue about the compositional arrangement of abstract painting.

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