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Beatrice Caracciolo @ Charles Cowles, 74 Grand Street to June 3rd.
Serena Bocchino @ Exhibit A, 160 Mercer Street to June 10th. |
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Beatrice Caracciolo
Roughly ten years ago, Sperone Westwater gallery held an exhibition of Cy Twombly�s paintings from 1951 and 1953. It was a phenomenal exhibition for which an excellent catalog was produced. This show is highly reminiscent of that one, particularly as to use of color and gesture. But Caracciolo is not merely redoing Twombly from the early fifties. These paintings take linear gesture as their core subject matter and shape it into something lyrical. The forms read most directly as organic but also with same spontaneous motion of lightning, like quick portraits of undistilled motion. |
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Though the color consists of subdued sepia browns, tans, cream yellows, black and white it varies enough from one work to the next allowing each piece to stand on its own. Working with such minimal elements it would be quite easy for the identities of each piece to dissolve into serialism. Instead, each painting remains fresh as you move through the show. Another thing about the color is that, although it is somber, the lively gesture of the lines counters this. To that end they are emotionally expressive while possessing a sense of gritty reality. |
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Beatrice Caracciolo Untitled, 1999, crayon, pigment on paper, 48.5 X 37 in |
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No doubt this too is part of the artist�s content. These paintings are classic examples of the power of abstraction to harness such reality. |
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