Mary Porterfield at Hofheimer Gallery

Mary Porterfield at Hofheimer Gallery

Mortality is a subject which most of us would prefer to ignore. In our time more effort goes towards delaying the inevitable rather than imagining an afterlife above or below. Eventually technology will probably halt the process of aging - but until then, we can expect the relentless physical and mental deterioration of ourselves and everyone we love. It’s a friggin nightmare. Professional caretakers and those with aging parents, however, have to face it every day. Mary Porterfield is both and she can effectively share her feelings since she is also a well trained figurative artist.

Most of the pieces in this exhibit feature a very old woman who seems off-balance, both physically and mentally. When she's not falling, she’s crawling across the floor. When she stares back at us, or at herself in the mirror, she appears to have difficulty with comprehension and recognition. She’s not really sure who she is or where she’s going.

The drama is enhanced by the severity of Porterfield’s figure drawing. Volumes are often built with intersecting planes, as if they were carved with a sharp chisel. She makes it even more grim and urgent by restricting herself to just one grayish color. Unlike the Charles White monochromes seen last year at the Art Institute of Chicago, however, Porterfield does not give us dark areas that feel rich or light areas that feel brilliant. She wants to share pain and despair, not pleasure. And to increase a sense of disorientation, she paints on translucent layers of glassine where one ghost-like picture plane dissolves into another. Which is real and which is a dream ? The viewer is just as puzzled as the senescent subject.

It’s her strong, overall shapes that sometimes keep these pieces from being totally depressing. They recall the large, powerful volumes seen in monochromatic reproductions of a late Medieval painter like Giotto. The only pieces that maintain formal strength throughout are Porterfield’s depictions of hands. They may be boney and arthritic, but they still express ability and strength of purpose.

By contrast, the largest piece in the exhibit, the eight-foot long “Act 1- the Indecision”, is mostly just confusing.. The narrative of devoted caregiving is explained by signage posted to the right — but it still leaves me puzzled. Why are there so many skeletons of gigantic birds walking about? It feels more absurd than tragic. The artist is apparently ambivalent about the self sacrifice of those who care for the hopeless - just as I am ambivalent about her art in this show. It addresses something fundamental to the human condition with monochromatic graphics similar to the art of German expressionists like Käthe Kollwitz. Unlike their pieces, however, I’m not left feeling thrilled and uplifted by the experience of human dignity under duress, I’m just left feeling dismayed. And I can read the daily news if I want that.