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'Abstraction to Realism,' which features the work of Susan Abbott and Jonathan McCree, explores how complex the conveyance between abstract and realist styles has become...Working with clearly discernible objects in immediately recognizable environments, Susan Abbott creates watercolor still lifes that range from small to large formats. Possessing remarkable command of traditional watercolor technique, Abbott assembles a vast array of subject matter-flowers, notably white lilies (a traditional symbol in Medieval and Renaissance painting of the Visitation), bowls of fruit, playing cards, personal effects such as postmarked envelopes, timepieces, postcards which often feature familiar images from the history of art, all arranged on elaborately patterned tablecloths. But Abbott's aerial bird's eye view pushes her work beyond the traditional precincts of conventional naturalism. The tables on which these objects are assembled refer in an allegorical fashion--indeed, Abbott's pictures are meant to be "read" in the post-modern sense--to the flat materiality of modernism's picture plane. In this intricate play of objects, surfaces, patterns, and the multiplication of "fool-the-eye" picture within the picture illusionist space (reminiscent of the traditional trompe l'oeilist work of Peto and Harnett) makes for a visual pleasure that is both figural and abstract. The double play of narrative and "allover" abstract visual pleasure give these paintings their remarkable abstract and allegorical richness.
Peter Gallo |
