Circles, chevrons, stripes, plaids, shapes, chevrons, flares, and once again circles. The artist Kenneth Noland has returned to his origins with a new series of strikingly original abstract paintings on exhibition at Chac-mool Contemporary Fine Art in Los Angeles, from April 30-June 5, 1999
Kenneth Noland emerged in the late '50s as one of leading painters of the Washington "color school." His works at the time exploited a motif of concentric bands of colour within a square canvas. (One of these wasfeatured recently on the cover of the March edition of "Architectural Digest.) Superficially resembling targets, these paintings used the format to exploit colour relations which akin to notes of music. Since that time, Noland has used a variety of other formats, but he paints always with scales and chords of color. One of the rare masters of colour in this century, his paintings are uniquely evocative. He is one of the few heirs of Matisse, and like Matisse, Noland's paintings are feasts for the eye.
His new paintings look back to Picasso, too, in their use of a new kind of collage. The new Noland circle has been cast from translucent acrylic, allowing the artist to apply colour both beneath and above before affixing it to canvas. This richness of effect is heightened by Noland's brilliant use of new pigments. The new circle collages exploit pearlescence, iridescence, metallic and holography pigments. This heady mix provides an unprecedented range of color feeling. The paintings can be spare and reduced or complex and florid, they can reverberate evanescently or sit lean and still and silent.
Kenneth Noland represented the United States at the Venice Biennale in 1964. He has had major retrospective exhibitions at the Guggenheim Museum and the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. His work can be found in major public and private collections around the world.
For further information contact:
Chac-mool Contemporary Fine Art
Director: Esthella Provas
8920 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles 90069
Phone: (310) 550-6792,
FAX (310) 550-6872
E-mail chacmool@earthlink.net
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