Scott Richter
Elizabeth Harris Gallery
529 W 20 Street,
6th Floor New York
NY 10011
October
12 thru' November 11, 2000
My
first reaction to Scott Richter's exhibition was: is it painting or
is it sculpture? Foot high stacks of oil paint, layer-upon-layer, inch
thick, seductively and eloquently reduced paint to it's bare minimum:
an excuse for making art justified in itself, conjuring up wayward thoughts
of Minimalist sculpture and Expressionist painting. The presentation
was matter of fact, as if taking the viewer into Richter's studio where
these tables and dollies became, literally, vehicles for art. The commonplace
of any painter's studio, they are smeared and scraped with dabs of paint
as any palette table would be. The method of spreading each layer was
accomplished by using a palette knife not in a painterly manner, but
as if he was spreading a layer of frosting on a cake. And this is where
the painting leaves off and the sculptural quality takes over as the
material's mass weighs down these painterly devices. The sturdy industrial
quality of these studio tables reinforces the gravity of these stacks
of paint. The process of construction using a secret drying agent for
the oil paints again eludes to sculptural methodology.
But
Richter's paradox is not satisfied yet, and an examination of the titles
and colors yields a rich historical commentary. One piece entitled "Who's
Afraid of Red, Yellow, & Blue?" takes both from Barnett Newman, while
"Sense/Nonsense" appropriates Franz Kline. There are other references
in his work to painters, but the visual quality and the corresponding
reference to painters of the Minimalist and Expressionist periods was
a surprisingly elegant statement. What the commentary says or does not
say is not as important as the open ended debate presented for thought
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