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 p r e s e n t s ARTREVIEW and criticism | June 2002 by Bill Kort |
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 STYX |
| LUCY BAKER is an American artist. She is primarily
an abstract painter. Occasionally she produces representational work; there is one
example in this show; a self-portrait. Baker’s paintings can be difficult for some to appreciate. The difficulty lies in an absence of context. To gain a context we must look back; but 35 years of a misguided avant-garde, which has led art away from its historical mission into a quagmire of divergent ideologies, is obscuring our view. To gain a foot-hold on Baker’s paintings we must look back to the Colour-field painters of the 60's, back further to the Abstract Expressionists of the 40's and 50's , and still further back to Surrealism. These are not the only sources but they are the ones we need to establish a context for Baker’s paintings; in fact, for contemporary abstraction in general. The order of importance given by individual artists to these sources inform the differences we encounter in the best contemporary abstraction. For Baker, Abstract Expressionism and Surrealism are most important. She has absorbed many influences but Pollock and Miro, and perhaps Hans Hofmann, are crucial. Her forms and the lyrical quality of the work suggest Miro. Her working method of placing the canvas on the floor is derived from Pollock. Hofmann’s influence is more subtle but her sense of colour suggests Hofmann; her Miro-like forms can also be found in Hofmann. Baker is not simply mixing and matching past masters to derive a pastiche she calls her own. She has fully assimilated her influences and has been on her own for over a decade.A picture in this show dated 1988 substantiates that decade-long maturity and establishes the direction her work would take. The more recent pictures are enhanced technically but this early picture is their equal both formally and expressively. Baker’s pictures are consistently figure-ground. The grounds are usually monochromatic; occasionally they are multicoloured; occasionally they are textured. The grounds are created utilising a variety of means: brush, roller, squeegee or pouring. The pictures are usually large as are the forms. Pouring is her preferred method for creating the forms. The forms are usually multicoloured. She employs only a few colours in each picture; black dominates. Dominance of black suggests drawing, and drawing is Baker’s strength; drawing in its broad sense: the creation of forms and their arrangement, that is, compositions. Her dominant form is snake-like: beginning in a circular head-like shape and ending in a pointed tail-like shape. This form, which can be large and thick or as thin as a pencil line, floats across the surface directing the viewer's attention. Some pictures are composed entirely of these snake-like forms. Sometimes she introduces an oval form which the snake-like forms float around or are anchored to. At other times the picture is composed of organic blobs over which she imposes her snake-like form to create movement and to strengthen compositional coherence. Although drawing is crucial to the success of the pictures, it is colour that strikes the viewer most forcefully: Baker has an acute colour sense. Baker’s imagery may be derived from an exterior model, but that model has been so thoroughly digested that it registers as unrecognisable. Baker adds a wide range of materials to the paint: polymer, gel, glitter, sparkle, iridescence, interference, pumice, etc. She also sticks various size marbles onto the surface of the picture, and occasionally builds areas into relief with modelling paste. The Show STYX, 2000, 84 x 197, is the largest picture in the show. The ground is cadmium red light. The forms are: black, gold, gold-green and a toned white. The forms on the left half of the picture are organic and large and nearly obscure the red ground. The right half is less crowded. Dominating the upper half is a large organic form hanging from the top edge; it is multicoloured but predominately gold-green; a soft gold shadow is brushed along one edge, suggestive of solar light. There are a few smaller forms below that move from the centre of the picture upward toward the top right corner. She uses her snake-like forms, which are near solid black, to create movement around the whole picture, and three large whitish forms to suggest movement from the lower left side toward the upper right corner. There are several groups of marbles scattered throughout the picture. |
Life and Death, 1997, 69 x 69, is an excellent
picture and perhaps the most accessible; it is semi-figurative. This picture can
lead the uninitiated into Baker’s more abstract work. The main form is large and
functions as a torso. Here her snake-like forms become arms and legs. She also creates
out of modelling paste a couple of bone-like shapes and a small face which are added
to the canvas. Two large clear marbles are embedded strategically; one acting as
a nipple of a large breast shape, the other a single eye in the middle of a canted
head. The colours in this picture are simply wonderful. The torso is iridescent light green, the right arm (my best guess) is iridescent pearl mixed with interference red, plus two small areas of iridescent deep mauve. The ground is black. Over this is sprayed a gold mist leaving only the areas nearest the figure black. Rush, 1997, 57 x 92, is one picture to which Life and Death can initiate the viewer. The forms are consistent in both. In Life and Death the forms serve a descriptive function (arms, legs, etc.); whereas in Rush their function is purely formal and decorative. The ground is green. A large semi-transparent light greenish oval occupies the middle of the picture; it is placed slightly to the right of centre. There are several large snake-like forms, coloured either black or gold, circling the oval. A series of freely-drawn thin orange lines is laced in and around the snake-like forms. Along the bottom is a series of similar glitter green lines. A line of marbles is embedded in the oval. Brainstorm, 1997, 93 x 69, is a great picture. Its formal arrangement is different than all the other pictures in the show. The ground is loosely painted in layers of light beige and a couple of different light bluish tones. Over this is spread a large orange-red floral shape that extends from the right edge toward the left side. At the centre of the floral shape is a suggested circle. Over this suggested circle is poured areas of black, thickened with gel, which fan out like the spokes of a wheel. Arching along the bottom and moving halfway up the left side are four large iridescent turquoise forms. There is also a small iridescent turquoise circle towards the top right, and a black circle near the bottom right corner. The organising principle in many of Baker’s pictures is not the obvious. In Life and Death it is not the expected large torso but the four smaller circular forms - the head, the breast, the oval with modelled head, and a circle in the bottom right corner - that organise the picture. These four circular forms create a skewed trapezoid which with the aid of the arms and legs create a circular motion, driving the viewer around the picture. In Rush a small black circle to the right of the large greenish oval anchors the picture. This is where the picture starts and where it returns over and over again. In a beautiful painting called On Angels Wings the floating black and iridescent white forms are anchored by a single small black circle at the lower right corner. It is the same with Brainstorm. If the small black circle in this painting were removed from the bottom right corner the whole picture would be unhinged. In STYX there is a black snake-like form near the bottom right corner that curves to partially enclose the red ground and suggest a circle. This circle mimics the ‘head’ of a black snake-like form at the centre of the picture and is implicated in a diagonal movement that arches across the whole picture from bottom right to top left. This movement continues down the left side and across the bottom, returning once again to the right corner. In two recent pictures, Single Cell and 3 Eggs, Baker isolates the circular form. These two paintings are more formalistic, more conceptual, and approximate symmetry, suggesting a shift of focus to Colour-field painting. Single Cell, 2002, 40 x 30, has a stippled red-and-black ground. The stippling suggests vertical stripes. Near the centre is placed an oval composed of poured concentric rings that overlie one another. As the paint dries the surface layer cracks to reveal the coloured layers below. 3 Eggs, 2002, 79 x 55, also has a stippled red-and-black ground. Here the orientation of the field is horizontal. Three elongated ovals are placed along the vertical axis. Again the rings are poured. The colours and their order are the same in all three rings; what varies is the size. -30- Further Info on "New New" Painters: MOFFETT'S NEWSLETTER 2.0 http://kenworthwmoffett.net |
