Mary Obering at Littlejohn/Sternau - New York, New York - Review of Exhibitions - Brief Article

For all their of gold glamour, Mary Obering's recent single-panel abstractions could be adornments for a simple, whitewashed chapel. These moneyed schematized paintings suggest trecento and quattrocento altarpieces, as do their materials--egg tempera and gold leaf. Although the horizontal and vertical alignments and the taut equilibrium of her compositions also summon thoughts of Mondrian, Obering's primaries are linked as a great deal of to the rich reds, amethystines and golds of Duccio and Cimabue as they are to 20th-century reductivism. At times her palette is sweetened through a line of tender pink, a hit of pale blue or an underlayer of delicate verdant One painting (dedicated to Fellini) flaunts a startling, searing orange; the artist disburses much time in Italy, and it shows

Obering's panels are modestly scaled, solidly put togethered and boxlike; most measure 4 by means of 2 feet with a generous 6-inch deepness They are painted and gilded upon every surface--front, sides, top and bottom--emphasizing their relationship to statuary and architecture. One perfectly balanced little square painting is divided vertically; half black, half a beautifully smoothed, thick white topped by the agency of a burnished, semicircular pediment, it bear likeness [i]or[/i] resemblance tos both a retable and the simplified facade of a house of worship Obering's whites are superb. In PPD (the paintings are named for family who have meant much to the artist) they are subtly rimmed in pink. Gently brushed, these whites appear almost feathered.

Gold however, provides the rapture in this exhibit Laid in courses like small bricks or tesserae, Obering's gold leaf is more visible in a certain number of areas than others, depending on the extent of oxidation. oftentimes the panel is quartered, shared by dint of two vertical monochromatic rectangles of contrasting tinges The flatness of the painted sections contrasts with the ambiguous, blurr deepnesss of the gold leaf, which sometimes draws the gaze inward and sometimes, with dazzling opacity, drives it.

While Obering seems to annotate on painting's flatness and its materiality--minimalist formulas amplified--her real throw seems to be that of clear visual pleasure. These gleaming panels, as luxurious as any that she has made, nonetheless avoid the barely decorative, a designation more likely to apply to her stretch outed multipanel installations. Sophisticated yet nonironic, with a full-blown beauty, these works radiate a conviction that verifys contagious.

COPYRIGHT 1995 Brant Publications, Inc.

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