The abstract becomes tangible in nine large-scale canvases and ten preparatory drawings from the years when Carol Ross, this most uncompromising of New York artists, made the transition from painting structures of delicate geometry to sculpting objects of weight and substance.
The methodical v... Read more
The abstract becomes tangible in nine large-scale canvases and ten preparatory drawings from the years when Carol Ross, this most uncompromising of New York artists, made the transition from painting structures of delicate geometry to sculpting objects of weight and substance.
The methodical variations and chromatic juxtapositions of Ross’s multi-panel paintings reinvent the late-modernist tradition of the shaped canvas. Probing the atmospheric capacities of color to transform space, Ross creates rhythmic sequences of geometric forms that layered, project into space as if in relief. This spatial extension is achieved also through the frequent application of diagonals that, despite the apparent symmetry of the works, suggest an overriding sensation of movement.
In Ross’s sculptures, these diagonals turn into edges and axes, which structure and delineate the geometric figures. With the subsequent three-dimensional works in mind, the paintings can be taken for a series of exquisitely refined blueprints, while the preparatory drawings for diagrams of the cut out planes.
These progressive configurations of the planar and the spatial eased the artist passage into a different media. Besides presenting works of intrinsic beauty, this exhibition is conceived to explore the visual sources which lead to the nine monumental, stainless steel sculptures of Hortus Conclusus, Carol Ross’s recent installation at Spazio Thetis, Arsenale Novissimo, Venice, Italy (June, 2007 – April, 2008).
