Laura Myntti, After Milton Avery #16, 20x30
Many of the modernists born between the 1860’s and 1880’s. (like Matisse and Picasso for example) wanted to show the world through recognizable images almost as much as they wanted to maximize their expression of personal energy through the effects of paint on canvas. Perhaps you could call that the legacy of Van Gogh.
Laura Myntti (b. 1961) has picked two of them, Milton Avery (1885-1965) and Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865-1931) to do something of a refresher course as she enters the final decades of her career.
Avery gets totally transformed into the ABX painter he never was - which is not really a bad idea. I’m not sure he had anything to express other than "Hey - this is Modern Art!". It’s not too surprising that nothing of his is now being shown in Chicago, the Met, or MOMA. Myntti seems to take his paintings as an invitation for free improvisation in a more complex pictorial space than she usually creates. None of her earlier work is in this show - but judging from online images, the above is a step up in excitement.
Gallen-Kallela was a bit more engaged with modern life, both social and personal. I’ve never seen his landscapes in person, but they seem to be both observational and mythic - as if to say "this is our sacred land". That’s rather distant from Myntti’s impetuous American individualism - but still Myntti’s variations are as joyful and vigorous as a Charlie Parker solo.
Curiously, the two observational landscapes in this show, scenes of a river valley in northern Wisconsin, are even more vigorous in brushwork, but kind of exhausting and tiresome overall. The Chippewa Flowage was just an excuse for action painting. Maybe she should skip representation entirely. Or, on the contrary, skip the vehement self expression and go for appealing, tranquil beauty.
Milton Avery, Red Rock Falls, 1947
(Milwaukee Art Museum)
Laura Myntti, After Milton Avery #7, 36x36
Akseli Gallen-Kallela ,Lake Kaiteli, 1905
Laura Myntti, After Gallen- Kallela, 36x36
Laura Myntti, Chippewa Flowage #6 , 24x30
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