Mitch Clark at Oliva Gallery

 

The Mitch Clark show now at Oliva Gallery does indeed resemble the jazz music suggested by its title, “Riff Driven”. Shreds of solid colors, often primary, weave in and out of each other as they erupt into space - much like the notes blaring out from a tenor saxophone. But I really can’t think of any jazz album for which it might serve as cover art. It’s too rationally organized for free jazz - but I’m not getting the kind of identifiable emotions that are up front in more melodic songs. Perhaps the best word for it is “psychedelic” - like a Jimi Hendrix solo on electric guitar Full of excitement and passion —- but who knows for what. 

 This is self-centered art - which is not necessarily a bad thing. Earlier hard edge Chicago abstract painters, like Rudolph Wrisenborn or Morris Barazani seemed to be presenting a world outside themselves. Clark is closer to the New York School which was introduced into the Dallas - Fort Worth area while he was beginning his career there. The conglomeration of shapes at the center of each of these paintings appears to be the artist himself. Unlike many other Abstract Expressionists, however, he’s not especially tormented, angry, or heroic. He’s just alive - very alive - and like all living things, he’s always changing. Each painting also seems to be transforming from one thing to another - as does his work from one decade to another. Back in the sixties, his paintings were anxious and atmospheric. A few decades later, he picked up that famous, though sometimes tedious, innovation of modernism : the Grid. Now, in his seventh decade of painting, he seems to be proudly singing a song of himself - like Walt Whitman - or every child who’s been given paint and paper. 

 We all like children’s art - but who would really go out of their way to see some? It comes from - and only requires, a quite limited span of attention. It’s not yet connected to any of the great ideas associated with civilization - and it hasn’t yet developed formal power. It’s disposable ( except, of course, to a doting parent). Many of the pieces in this show don’t have enough content to hold my attention, either. Yet they all seem to be moving towards profundity and power - and a few of them are riveting. They have a sense of wide-eyed curiosity and opening up to the world. Like the aging Matisse with his paper cut-outs, Mitch Clark is neither an old fogey nor an ignorant child. 

 One of the delights of this show is the artist’s acrylic technique. The paint is uniformly thin but not translucent. Brush strokes are not visible, but neither is there a clinical precision to the edges of the shapes of solid color. The edges are just loose enough to feel casual but not careless - appropriate for light-hearted animal shapes that occasionally wander in.  ( is that a big orange rhino or a jackass that appears in the above image ?)

 Social activism, banished from American art in the 1950’s has recently returned with a vengeance. Self expressive artists like Clark, unless they present a preferred identity, are now painting way under the artworld’s radar. But that doesn’t make their art any less beautiful 

 

 

 

 

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Lonn Taylor's great interview with the artist can be heard here

 

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Jack Roth (1927-2004), Rope  Dancer, 1980

 

 

 here's some work seen at Chicago's Art Expo in 2012.

It works with similar elements

but feels more like a world 

where things that are broken have to be fixed -  

instead of toyed with.

BTW - Roth's day job was professor of mathematics.

 Robert Irvin (1922-2015), St. Germain, 1995

This British artist,  seen at Chicago's Art Expo this year,

did not restrict himself to areas of solid color - 

but like Clark, he does express a child's joy of exploration and being alive

 - even at a ripe old age.