Leon Polk Smith

The work of Leon Polk Smith (1906-1996) is currently featured in two exhibits (in New York at Washburn Gallery and in Chicago at Valerie Carberry), and was recently the focus of a 'Kabinett' at Art Basel Miami Beach.  His paintings and works on paper are included in numerous museum collections across the United States and he is well known to those acquainted with American minimalism. The impact of Leon Polk Smith on several generations of reductivist artists is profound. However, I expect that Smith's work is not familiar to some, or perhaps many, of my readers. While I prefer his early work, I've included images from his entire oevre.  

"The content of all of my works for over forty years has been mainly concerned with space and color. And my driving interest in the study of the history of art and its evolvements has been with artists' concepts of space and their use of color."  

(Leon Polk Smith, 1982. Published in Leon Polk Smith, Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen am Rhein and Musee de Grenoble, 1989)

To consider the work of Leon Polk Smith, it is helpful to acknowledge the influence of Mondrian, which Smith did quite directly in his paintings of the 1940s and 1950s.  The 2006 centenary exhibit at Washburn Gallery shows this quite eloquently. 
(All photos in this section are from the Washburn Gallery website).

Installation view of the 2006 centenary exhibit

LEON POLK SMITH   Diagonal Passage #9, 1949, oil on canvas, 46 x 36 inches

The current exhibit at Washburn Gallery in NY:  Cherokee | Chickasaw | Choctaw  shows a selection of his work from the 1940s. Smith grew up in Oklahoma and had Cherokee ancestors. The influence of the visual traditions of the Southwest are clearly evident in the work of this period, as is the influence of Mondrian. (All photos in this section are from the Washburn Gallery website).

LEON POLK SMITH   Untitled, 1945, gouache on paper, 19 7/8 x 14 1/4 inches

LEON POLK SMITH   Untitled, 1945, gouache on paper, 40 x 25 1/2 inches

LEON POLK SMITH   Untitled, 1946, gouache on paper, 40 x 25 1/2 inches

LEON POLK SMITH   Composition in Red, Yellow, Black, 1948, oil on wood panel, 12 x 12 inches

In the 1950s, Smith began to move away from rectilinear forms.  He also began to work on shaped canvases, with a reduced palette and pared down compositions often limited to just two or three forms. Additional work from the 1950s can be seen below in the section on the exhibit at Valerie Carberry.
(Images in this section are from the Leon Polk Smith Foundation)

LEON POLK SMITH   Kanawa, 1956    oil on canvas, 41 inches diameter

LEON POLK SMITH   Okemah, 1955    oil on canvas, 47 inches diameter

The Kabinett installation at Art Basel Miami Beach (from Valerie Carberry Gallery) featured work from the 1950s and 60s. (Photos in this section courtesy of Joanne Mattera Art Blog).

LEON POLK SMITH  Untitled, 1963, enamel on wood, 12.25 x 3.625 x 1.5 inches

The current exhibit at Valerie Carberry in Chicago, Leon Polk Smith: Space Considered  includes paintings and collages from the mid 1950s through mid 1960s. (All photos in this section are from the Valerie Carberry Gallery website).

"I set out from Mondrian to find a way of freeing this concept of space so that it could be expressed with the use of curved line as well as straight. I soon found that this was not an easy thing to do. After more than a decade of intense search and painting (in 1954) somewhat by accident, while drawing with free line on a spherical surface, I observed a concomitant situation wherein the idea of space and form were complimentary to each other as well as interchangeable." 

(Leon Polk Smith, 1961. Published in Leon Polk Smith, Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen am Rhein and Musee de Grenoble, 1989).

LEON POLK SMITH  Untitled  collage on paper, 1958, 26.25 x 20.25 inches

LEON POLK SMITH   WHITE-WHITE  acrylic on paper, 1955, 23.75 x 19 inches

LEON POLK SMITH   Red-Black-Red (2 Approaching Spheres) oil on shaped masonite, 1955, 17 x 10.25 inches

In the 1960s and 1970s, Smith's focus shifted to clusters of shaped canvases and significantly increased in size. I have included photos from the 1995 exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum to provide a sense of scale. This  exhibit included work from the 1930s through the 1990s. At the museum website are many installation views as well as descriptive information about the evolution of Smith's work.
(All photos in this section are from the Brooklyn Museum website).

To give you a sense of the dramatic increase in scale, the double panel painting shown above, Form Space #1: Red Wing, 1979, is 48 x 181 inches (in the collection of MOMA).

The 1960s through 1980s brought a return to a brighter, multi-colored palette as Smith continued working with shaped canvases, often in large clusters. The 1990s, the final period of work, brought a renewed interest in line, simplified composition and a reduced palette.

(Images in this section are from the Leon Polk Smith Foundation)

LEON POLK SMITH   Constellation Blue-Gold, 1972   oil on canvas, 4 elements, 82 x 95 3/4 inches

LEON POLK SMITH   Sunset Caribe, 1983    acrylic on canvas, 60 x 112 inches

LEON POLK SMITH   Open Space, 1990   acrylic on canvas, 68 x 60 inches

Throughout his fifty+ year career, Leon Polk Smith's work evidenced a joyful embrace of color and form, and it is gratifying that it continues to be actively exhibited.


To see an archive of images along with biographical information and interviews, visit the Leon Polk Smith Foundation.

BLINKY PALERMO at David Zwirner

BLINKY PALERMO    II Who knows the beginning and who knows the end? 1976 

  Acrylic on 2 sheets of drawing paper

Each drawing 11 7/5 x 8 ¼

Aaah. Blinky Palermo. What better to look at on a beautiful spring day (or any day, for that matter).  Direct, stripped down, but filled with soul.  An exquisite show of acrylic on paper drawings by Palermo is on exhibit at David Zwirner, in Chelsea, April 25 through June 29, 2013. The occasion for this treat is the 70th anniversary of Palermo's birth. 

Palermo lived in New York from 1973 to 1977 and most of the work in this exhibition dates from 1976-77.  All the drawings are modest in scale and  executed in acrylic on drawing paper mounted on cardboard. Although barely visible in the more distant views of the suites, all were done on sheets from a spiral bound drawing notebook. I mention this because the perforated edge adds to the honesty of this body of work--while Palermo addresses important concerns in the vocabulary of abstraction, he does so without conceit.   (The images in this post came from the gallery website. Unfortunately, I was not able to access close up views of individual drawings in the suites with multiple drawings.)

BLINKY PALERMO  1 – 7  Untitled, 1976    Acrylic on drawing paper mounted on cardboard

Each drawing: 12 5/8 x 9 3/8, mounted on cardboard and framed separately.

Staatliche Graphische Sammlung Munich    

BLINKY PALERMO   Das gelbe Fenster, 1976    Acrylic and graphite on 2 sheets of drawing paper mounted on cardboard

Each sheet:   11 5/8 x 8 1/4"

Palermo's drawings are difficult to categorize--they are minimalist in composition and palette, but not formulaic in any way. In some drawings the hand of the artist is revealed through expressive brushwork. Yet in others, the brushwork is barely visible and it is only in the subtle imperfections of the geometry that we feel his presence.    

Most of the drawings were executed either in pairs or in series of 4 to 12 drawings, and there is a sense of experimentation across each series. Several of the suites of drawings are titled 'Tageszeiten', indicating these drawings may have been a daily activity for Palermo. He  explores figure/ground relationships, perceptions of depth, and the saturation of color all quite deliberately, but without pretension.  

 

BLINKY PALERMO      Nevada, 1976   Acrylic on 2 sheets of drawing paper mounted on cardboard

Each sheet:  12 5/8 x 9 3/8"  in a single frame  

Kunstmuseum Bonn

Works in black, red and white are prominent in the exhibit, but there are drawings in other palettes as well.  1-12, 12 Monate, 1976 is a suite of drawings in which the colors include yellows, red, green and blue. (Once again, I was not able to access a good quality file of the installation.)  

BLINKY PALERMO    1 – 4  Tageszeiten, 1976     Acrylic on drawing paper mounted on cardboard in 4 parts.     Each drawing: 12 ½ x 9 3/8" mounted on cardboard in a separate frame

BLINKY PALERMO    1 – 7 Untitled (for Babette), 1976     Acrylic on drawing paper mounted on cardboard in 7 parts. Each drawing 11 5/8 x 8 ½”, mounted on cardboard in a separate frame. Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, NY

 Das Rastel (below) is one of several pieces that is primarily gestural. Here, Palermo uses black both as gesture and to depict a void. 

BLINKY PALERMO   Das Ratsel,  1976   Acrylic on 3 sheets of drawing paper mounted on cardboard.  
 Each sheet 11 5/8 x 8 1/4"

 
The appeal of these drawings is in the unassuming manner in which Palermo works through the explorations.  The work is often quiet, slow, and enormously satisfying.  There is much more to see in this exhibit, and while you are there, stop in to see early works by Richard Serra on the first floor.

Altoon Sultan: Playful Geometry

Blinky Palermo

I am often intrigued by images that are visually spare, although I tend to favor a measure of compositional complexity in many of my own paintings.  The work that captures and holds my interest is generally modest in its making and conveys an essential experience—sometimes meditative, sometimes playful.  Collages by Jean Arp, paintings of Blinky Palermo, or small Tantric paintings are among the gems that come to mind. 

Jean Arp

page from Tantra Song

 

It is in this spirit that I offer some thoughts on the work of Altoon Sultan. In recent years, Sultan has been painting intimately scaled abstractions with images derived from tools and farm implements that she encounters near her home in rural Vermont. These egg tempera on parchment paintings (some as small as 4 x 6") are elegantly composed and often spatially complex. You can see a selection of these paintings by clicking here. 

However, it is in Sultan’s prints and textiles that I find connections to a more minimalist aesthetic, but with a twist.  Working with iconic geometric forms, her circles, squares, and triangles are sometimes presented in symmetrical arrays, while in other works they appear to frolic across an open field. Sultan is also an avid explorer of materials, producing potato prints, cardboard prints, as well as digital prints. Her textiles include hooked wool drawings (which often incorporate egg tempera), as well as what she describes as “ruglets”, small wall hangings made from hand dyed wool hooked on linen backing. Many of the prints have a palette of subdued earth tones, while the textiles are often brightly hued. 

 The Potato Prints generally incorporate simple forms arranged symmetrically on the page and concisely titled with the name of the shapes—no pretensions here. The forms are irregular in both shape and inking, and imbued with a hand-made, humble quality.  To see more recent potato prints by Sultan, click here. 

Sultan, Vertical Three, 11 3/4 x 6 1/4"

Sultan, Four Square, 2012, 12 x 10"

Sultan, Five Circles, Four Squares, 2012
17 3/8 x 15" 

 

Once again, using an everyday material in making the Cardboard Prints, Sultan works with basic geometric forms arrayed in simple patterns. In this series, Sultan’s compositions are simultaneously pared down and rhythmic. The somewhat irregular shapes offer a sense of possibility, without complications. 

Sultan, Green Rounds, 2012, image 10x10"

Sultan, Split Circles, 2012, image 10 x 6 3/4

Sultan, Baby Blue, 2012, 16 1/2 x 28"

Sultan’s Hooked Wool Drawings can be seen as a bridge between her prints and her hooked wool ruglets (below).  Incorporating hand dyed wool as well as egg tempera on linen, these drawings leave much of the field bare, and offer a range of tactile experiences as the forms float and bounce over the ground. 

 

Sultan, 2012 #12, hand dyed wool and egg tempera on linen, 14 x 12"

Sultan, 2012 #16, hand dyed wool and egg tempera on linen, 14 1/2 x 12"

Sultan, 2012 #17, hand dyed wool and egg tempera on linen, 15 x 11 1/4"

Although continuing to explore conversations between simple geometric shapes, Sultan’s Hooked Wool Textiles (which are intended as wall-hangings) take us in a somewhat different direction. The very tactile nature of these pieces would seem to lead us away from the minimalist sensibility of the prints, yet they are first and foremost explorations of figure and ground. The often vibrantly hued textiles are composed of numerous ‘strokes’ of hand dyed hooked wool, which create a rich texture and lush surface activity. 

Sultan, Purple Push, 2009, 10 x 21.5

Sultan, Blue/Yellow Ground, 2012, 11 x 10

Sultan, Objects #4, 2011, 9 x 15

Sultan, Red / Blue Ground, 2011, 11 x 10

Sultan, Empty Center / Blue Brown, 2011, 9 x 9

Sultan, Four pieces from the Figure/Ground series

These textiles are exquisite balancing acts -- placing simple forms in tension with one another and in tension with the edges of the image.  As with the prints, the slight irregularity of the forms allows them to breathe and also brings some levity into the formal conversations.  For me, Sultan's explorations in printmaking and textiles provide an ongoing source of visual delight, as they offer a minimalist sensibility along with a dash of wit.

Sultan is quite prolific and the images pictured here provide only a small sampling of her work.
You can see more of Sultan’s prints by clicking here and more of her textiles by clicking here.  You can also search her blog for additional images from these series.