LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth ART Around by Lee Wayne Mills New Work by Murray Archibald at Blue Moon childsplay, Murray Archibald's new exhibition (now on view at Blue Moon through July 29), sho
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
ART Around |
by Lee Wayne Mills |
New Work by Murray Archibald at Blue Moon
childsplay, Murray Archibald's new exhibition (now on view at Blue Moon through July 29), shows how much fun can be had when an artist works hard and thoughtfully on new issues and ideas developing in his body of work. In his brief exhibition overview Murray acknowledges a continued interest in new techniques that first appeared in last year's work. But more importantly, it resonates throughout the exhibition as Murray explores his painterly options and finds those options being exercised in deeper and more meaningful ways. The "play" involved manifests itself on a number of levels: As before, there is the joyful commingling of color, pattern, texture and form. These elements have always been a part of Murray's visual vocabulary. Now they register in a concerted effort much beyond their design directive. Additionally, the dramatic and comedic characters play out their options in orchestrated spacesmuch like an actual stage set with proscenium arches, striped and checkered floors and sweeping, gathered drapes. They have an operatic quality, full of heroes and villains, vixens and virgins. More significant than that, Archibald's direction for his players creates plays within the playand it is therein that the tale is toldas subtext is revealed and the voices find lyric intention. Masterful by any standard, BALANCE (I WALK A TIGHTROPE) wins both my heart and best in show award. There is a classic early modernist posture to the work yet it is freshly, spontaneously contemporary. It is as if some early 20th Century sensibility catapulted into today. Moody and evocative, there is a haunting quality to this paint. Remembrance and reflection conjoin as the moon and a heart hurtle through time and space creating a spectral being connected to a vast landscape of possibility or opportunity. The authoritative hand of the artist is reflected in assured gestures that create lines with graphic resonance and compositional integrity. Dancing surfaces give way to colors and forms hidden from view, revealed by the friction of time and the fragility of recollection. Catapulting into the unknown, we do walk a tightropeindividually, collectively. Familiar (this is clearly an Archibald painting) yet engagingly different, the artist moves confidently into new levels of meaning and consciousness, carrying us with him. In other paintings all around us are friendly reminders of images pastgrids articulated as checkerboardsprimary colors emboldened by the punch of black and whitecoiling, curvilinear figurative overlaysand iconic Pop symbols like hearts, lips and the apples that tempt them. What is different is the playful authority behind the gestures and the enormous, rhythmic conviction that deploys them. Additionally, a number of the new works require fewer of these design gambits. And several transcend the designing touch altogether in favor of storylines from within. DUAL NATURE I (ANGEL AND DEVIL) and DUAL NATURE II (HERO AND FOOL) explore the ambiguity of continuumsopposites directly connectedduality at its singular best (worst.) The Devil is an Angel, whatever else he may be, but which of these fellows is which in the painting? Can we ever be sure? Is the Hero ever a Fool, as in foolish? Or is it a more Shakespearean reading of Fool, as in the conscience of the King? Fools can be Heroes too. These figures parallel and overlap each other much as their meanings do. How can we surely identify each and his attributes? If fact, we cannot. As in real life, the lush surfaces and rich colors counterpoint the seductive textures of our experienceexhilarating and confusing usmaking fools of heroes. The strongest works in this exhibition no longer directly reference Pop imagery as unnecessary to both the meaning and the intent of the work. This is a sure sign of the maturing of an artist's vision. childsplay is work, in this case, and very adult stuff. Even where the influences linger, as in ONE BODY, ONE HEART, there is change indicative of both the growth and the restless urge of the artist to move on. ONE BODY with its incised, linear head hovering over a grid of nine squares may look yearningly back into the history of art but remains essentially forward thinking and deeply optimistic. It is full of faithas in an artist brimming with confidence, an individual charged with direction and a spirit unbridled with energy. Lee Wayne Mills is co-owner of Coastal Frameshop and Gallery in Rehoboth Beach. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 14, No. 8 July 2, 2004 |