ny times review-gallego-works on paper
New York Times Art in Review
Sanford Smith's Works on Paper
March 3, 2006Of all the annual New York art fairs, "Works on Paper" is the only one defined
not by artistic medium, historic period or the identity of the artist but by the material
on which the artwork is made. That leaves the possibilities pretty wide-open.
The more than 80 dealers on hand offer drawings, watercolors, prints, posters,
photographs, books and more by masters from Rembrandt to Picasso; obscure
academics of the 18th and 19th centuries; contemporaries like David Hockney
and Sean Scully; and great Japanese woodcut makers like Hokusai and Hiroshige.
Quality and prices range considerably, too. All of which makes for an unpredictable,
entertaining and, for collectors, potentially profitable experience.
While many galleries favor the crowded hodgepodge display style, a few offer
carefully considered presentations. David Findlay Jr., for one, has a well-selected
small show of works by 20th-century Americans, including a lively, intricately patterned
black and white picture by the Indian Space painter Steve Wheeler; and two radiant
watercolors by the visionary nature painter Charles Burchfield…
Much of the pleasure of the show is in discovering outstanding single objects here and there.
One of the most impressive works of contemporary art is a ghostly pale pencil drawing
almost five feet square by Christopher Gallego that describes with intense realism and a
delicate touch the artist's studio windows.
And the most striking work at Egenolf, a Japanese print specialist, is a large, late-18th-century woodcut
by Katsukawa Shunei depicting sumo wrestlers grappling under blossoming cherry tree boughs in a formal garden.
Often the good finds are quite modest, like a small emblematic watercolor of mountains
under zigzagging lightning bolts by Rockwell Kent at Cooley.
Often the good finds are quite modest, like a small emblematic watercolor of mountains
under zigzagging lightning bolts by Rockwell Kent at Cooley.
The show abounds in curiosities and oddities that may or may not be great works of art.
Norman Brosterman, for example, has finely made science fiction illustrations from the 1950's
by John Polgreen and wintry aerial views of mountains traversed by ski trails that James Niehues
has been making for ski resorts since the mid-80's. Without the symbols and lines that are
added later when they are converted into trail maps for skiers, they have a slightly primitive lucidity
that calls to mind early American folk art.
KEN JOHNSON
tel: 845.532.4509 e-mail:
