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The following text
was reproduced in its entirety from the April 15th Columbus Dispatch Article
pictured above.
As the 20th century
draws to a close, every "rule" of painting seems to have been
broken, every traditional notion of painting challenged. In the aftermath
of all the mind-boggling transformations that painters have effected in
the last 100 years or so, is there any uncharted territory still to be
explored?
The answer offered by the current exhibition at Jan Maiden Fine Art is
"yes". The exhibition, "(De) Collage", brings together
work by six artists engaged in examining paintings most fundamental properties.
Each uses collage as a point of departure. Extending the cubist concepts
formulated by Picasso and other modernists, the artists use the surfaces
of their works as indexes of pictoral space.
Some of the most intriguing pieces in the show are by Christian Bonnefoi,
a visiting artist from Paris at the Ohio State University. For twenty
years, Bonnefoi has focused on issues related to the ostensibly two-dimensional
surface in his writing about art and in his own work.
His interest in these issues was sparked by a particular aspect of Picasso's
papiers colles (pasted papers).
Picasso had stuck pins into a number of the papiers colles. For
Bonnefoi, the pins assert that the surface is not just a flat background,
a ground zero from which pictoral elements project or recede. The thickness
of the surface makes manifest the space between the front and back of
a painting or collage. Bonnefoi "shows" us that space through
various techniques.
In the Hommes Illustres series, Bonnefoi uses pushpins, which rivet
the works to the wall. Through this simple gesture, the artist indicates
the space in front of the surface, the space inside the thin pasted paper
layers of the surface, and the space behind.
In the painting In Between, the artist again acts in the space
between recto and verso. Bonnefoi painted it from behind the thin cotton,
tarlatan surface, allowing the paint to bleed through to the front. The
painting thus functions on, through and behind the tarlatan.
Laura Lisbon likewise explores the concept of space through complex layering
of materials.
In creating Flag/Flower, Lisbon began with a three dimensional
object: a folded paper towel with which paint had been blotted. She then
projected the image of the paper towel onto a canvas and painted the projected
image. To the canvas she has attached translucent paper stencils with
pushpins.
In some areas she has painted around the stencils and then moved them,
creating an interesting interplay of solid and void, highlighted by subtle
shifts in gradations of white.
The pin technique appears again in an untitled work by Dale Hannon. Hannon's
use of the pin to suggest the thickness of the surface is particularly
eloquent, for the pin not only penetrates the surface but comes back out
again. This weaving of the pin through the cotton ensures that the viewer
gets the point.
Belgian Artist Guy Massaux explores the thickness of the paper surface
through folding, stapling, and cutting. The folds create a relieflike
three-dimensionality of surface while the cuts allow us to see its depth
in the side view. Marks of staples that have been removed are left visible
as another sort of evidence of thickness.
An untitled work be Christopher Taylor treats the surface in a conceptual
way. Taylor's work consists of two slides projected on a wall by side-by-side
projectors.
The images thus overlap, creating a single image on the wall. The pictoral
surface cannot be identified as a tangible element at all, for it lies
neither on the wall nor on the slides.
This work and others are impossible to understand through photographs.
They must be seen and carefully examined to be appreciated. The reward
for that effort is insight into the future possibilities of painting.
"(De)Collage" brings together an outstanding group of works
with an outstanding curatorial focus.

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