THE STORY CONTINUES
October 1st - October 26th 2016
WALTER WICKISER GALLERY INC
210 Eleventh Avenue Suite 303, New York, NY 10001 - 212.941.1817
Ethel Gittlin’s latest series of paintings have an intriguing awareness of the physical world and an intense feeling of curiosity. Her works speak to our contemporary time and state of being with waves of color, form and movement that come to us amplified by such references as graffiti, music, nature, social behavior and a want for peace and tranquility. The narratives are mysterious, but with enough familiarity to keep us engaged and searching. We feel anticipation, we sense the promise of enlightenment, we want for resolution but we know it is on us to find our way to the other side. However, her art is not about some alternate state or parallel universe, no. These works are more about us as human filters, about how we take things in through our five senses, and most importantly, how this artist projects her cognitive state and her spiritual realm.
In The Story Continues (2016) we have a bit of an edge, a few anxious moments prompted by suspicious serrated forms that dart across the painted surface – one punctuated by three flower petals, two of which appear to be skull-like eye holes. Yet overall, there is a quiet calm enhanced by veils of blues and pinks while leaf-like shapes secure the milder emotions. There is also the addition of text, perhaps part of the tale the artist is referring to in the title, represented by a fuzzy memory or incomplete thought that we can analyze and project off of to our own end.
Surge (2016) has a much different tenor. Here, the artist observes from above a place that is afire with emotions and assertions that can only be calmed by an edge of green that too has its own fiery perimeter. Are we looking at devastation or passion, is this a commentary on climate change or a reference to political or social change – only the artist knows for sure.
Bubblegum and Wine (2016) has a complexity and an approach that is quite like Jazz. There are passages and rhythms that are free-formed, yet connected within a common intent. There is a conversation going on between elements that is quietly conducted by a spiritual guide to the left (a white vertical haze), while factions of blues, greens, pinks and yellow coalesce to keep it both hot and cool.
Weekender (2016) portrays an optimistic, even up-lifting mind-set that suggests many buoyant scenarios. There is a certain playful approach to the elements – and like The Story Continues, text returns to the fore. Here, the approach to relating form to color and to composition is quite different from the other works. In this instance we sense no danger, there are no anxious moments, no conflicting passages or aspects that cannot find their place without overpowering a neighbor or overplaying a hand.
“Dreamworld (2016) and Tell Me (2016) have text as well. With Dreamworld we feel joy. There is this presence of peace, of living in the moment and smelling the roses. There is cool air to breathe and soft sun to warm – a perfect state of nature undisturbed and true. In Tell Me, we have a similar circumstance that is about to change by the intrusion of nightfall – as spirits arise and the sounds of the night pass through an atmosphere of lessening light. Now, the level of calm switches to caution as the imagination replaces the lost certainties Gittlin leads us to a new puzzle to explore.”
