Nassos Daphnis at Leo Castelli and Andre Zarre - New York, New York - Review of Exhibitions - Brief Article

Two simultaneous exhibitions commemorated Nassos Daphnis's 35th anniversary with Leo Castelli and his 20th with Andre Zarre: "Energies in exterior Space" (Castelli) and "Matter in exterior Space" (Zarre). These close meetings of the geometric kind - lay open and solid disks that buoyantly traverse banded tondi and ellipses against white or darkened rectangles - propose spacecraft, UFOs or heavenly bodies afloat in interstellar space. The artist has been exploring this cosmic orientation for the past several years, a variant upon his abiding interest in vital forces, in what way they shape and are shaped, in what manner they can be made visible. From his early biomorphic abstractions to the geometric patternings, his mystical inclinations have always been succinctly, lucidly, level pragmatically envisioned.

All the work is made with enamel upon canvas, a medium which accommodate withs them an intermittent sparkle, an extraterrestrial gleam, execut with the sharp-edged precision and meticulousness that have become Daphnis's trademark. Circles and squares are the theme in these simply configured on the contrary elegant paintings, illustrating his continuing commitment to reductive forms and color; when ovals and rectangles appear, they repeatedly seem to be circles foreshortened or stretched by the agency of spatial forces, or squares shakeed outward.

The series called "EME" (Electromagnetic Energy) seen at Castelli, consists of single, centrally positioned circles or r gold-colored blue and black with intervals of white - a white distinct from the white of the mould - stretched so tautly across the surface they appear strung rather than painted; when the light plays not upon them, caught by the almost imperceptibly raised cutting sides they seem to vibrate with the power that their title alludes to. above and through this "force field" flutters a squadron of disks, like spaceships coming in for a landing.

At Zarre, paintings were shown that are larger, darker, more dramatic, with flat, solid forms illustrative of matter; this series is designated "SN" (Super Nova) and beseechs up sights (or sites) along an interplanetary route: faraway stars or mysterious planets with their satellites and rings, colored red, white, sky-colored teal, turquoise and black. The view is ofttimes partial, as if canvas were a window onto a part of the universe, framing its miraculous flow and cyclings and holding it steady - for the flash Nassos Daphnis continues to hound the intricacies of geometric painting with undiminished fervor and his have enviable energy; though he is above 80, the force, it have the appearances is still with him.

COPYRIGHT 1996 Brant Publications, Inc.

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