Al Loving, Untitled, 1986, fabric and painted paper collage on stretchers. CliCK here, or on the image, to see it larger.
These Lovings, and one more, are included in a small group show at the New York State Museum. The untitled piece above consists of three pieces of loosely draped fabric over stretchers, topped with a collage of stained and thinly painted cut paper shapes. IT'S PERFECT!!! I'm not sure how the paper construction is attached to the fabric, without pulling it down.
Loving considered himself a "material abstractionist", a term used a lot in Joanne Mattera's recent Miami posts.
Al Loving, Floyd Street #4, 1985, acrylic, ink, collage and gels on stretchers.
This one is layers of overlapping and painted cut paper applied to some type of panel, and painted over.
The edges are kind of wobbly, with something soft, like felt, applied all around the sides.
RELATED: interview with Al Loving, biography
4 comments:
Martin,
Thanks for the mention of my Miami posts. I just made up the term "material abstraction" because of the wealth of materiality, stuff-ness, with which so much work there was made. So it's interesting to know that Loving used the term to describe his work. It's certainly appropriate.
By the way, another material abstractionist was the Italian, Alberto Burri, whose survey show is up at Mitchell-Innes and Nash through January 19th. Burri worked with arte povera materials. I didn't love everything--the burned plastic looked too 60s, which is probably when the work was made; the fired clay, too contrived --but his geometric paintings of oil and a touch of gold leaf on Celotex are powerful.
These remind me a bit of Erick Sall. I am into it. Cut paper rocks.
This might be stating the obvious, but I think High Times Hard Times (book & exh) will go down as one of those pivotal shows along the lines of 1969's Anti-Illusion or even the Armory show. But unlike those, this one looks back at underappreciated artists, which, like it or not, is part of our age.
Loving is terrific.
joanne - BURRI! yes, eva brought him up in the comments of a recent post... we were talking about burri, fontana, and scarpitta.
i'd have liked to have seen that show... but i saw the photos on your site, and james kalm's video report.
bruce - i hadn't made any connection to eric's stuff at all... but can kind of see it, with all of the overlapping happening, and the palette.
vc - you are dead on. i'm so glad i saw that show, and i forgot to mention HTHT in the post... but, i added a label. i've seen so many of those artists elsewhere since seeing HTHT in Greensboro.
did anybody see alan shields at the parrish museum? he was in HTHT, and i wish i could have gone out and seen it.
John Perrault wrote about it -
http://www.artsjournal.com/artopia/2007/11/alan_shields
and benjamin gennochio, for the nytimes -
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C00E7D91738F932A25752C1A9619C8B63&sec=&spon=
not sure if these cut and pasted links are taking. you might have to google it.
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