According to my new Dictionary of the Arts, landscape painting
emerged
in the West as a distinct genre in the early 16th century. Susan
Whyne’s “Under
the Sun” series and Lilian Garcia-Roig’s autumnal landscapes add to
this
tradition of painting real and imagined natural scenery, with
idiosyncratic
style. Bettie Ward, whose prints “visually discuss mankind’s position
in
nature,” suggests a personal, shadowy interior landscape. UT art professor Susan Whyne’s paintings and a mini-retrospective
of ceramic
sculpture by Claudia Reese are currently featured at Lyons Matrix
Gallery. All
but two of Whyne’s paintings were made in the last year and address a
visit the
artist made to the French Riviera. Most tourists return with a
different
impression of the Mediterranean sun and surf than she did. Whyne is
interested
in the juxtaposition of images of the idle rich – ornate jewelry, gilt
clocks,
antique furniture, and rich brocade patterns – with a series of world
disasters
that, she says, seem to occur each time she begins a painting. “Under
the Sun:
Collapse” and “Jeweled Fish” feature the Kobe earthquake. No doubt
Oklahoma’s
recently demolished Federal Building is working its way, even now, into
Whyne’s
imagery.
The paintings are downright apocalyptic, but no more so than the
daily papers.
Like The New York Times, they present one disaster after
another,
surrounded by images of gold time pieces, flashy jewelry, and
fashionably
dressed women. It is a sad fact that the Times and Whyne’s
paintings are
both a highly accurate reflection of the world today. Personal luxury
continues
to be pursued, while up-to-the-minute media coverage reminds us of
natural
disasters – flood, earthquake, tornadoes – and the not-so-n1atural
behavior of
some of our fellow humans.
The omnipresent visual components of Whyne’s paintings are a world
globe,
rolling tidal waves of a disconcerting color, huge baubles, bathers in
swimsuits reclining in beach chairs or on towels, and assorted luggage.
The
suitcases are frequently falling, flying, or carried by great lines of
the
dispossessed, migrating across the artist’s picture plane.
I can’t say that I like the paintings. They don’t welcome that
kind of
response. They are purposely awkward and unevenly painted and jarring
in
content. On the other hand, I am in complete sympathy with their
message and am
wooed by their compositions (which range from highly competent to
masterful)
and the visual language that the artist employs. Whyne wants us to be
uncomfortable. She manipulates the viewer with off-putting colors and
bizarre
scenarios. In “Under the Sun: Firefighter,” a woman holds a fire hose
to a
burning red globe in the sky, and her mission – to stop the flames – is
clearly impossible. Sunbathers at the beach on the far side of the
canvas are
surrounded by bodies in body bags and other corpses, still bound, that
have
washed up on shore. The rotund bathers don’t appear particularly
disturbed. I
am.
Another UT art professor, Lilian Garcia-Roig, is featured in a
one-person
exhibition at Galeria Sin Fronteras. Her paintings are significantly
different
from Whyne’s. They are about a thickly painted surface and the absence
of human
mischief. In her artist’s statement, Garcia-Roig says she strives to
“capture
the essence or feel of being in a specific place, rather than attempt
to record
all its details.” The work is so recent that a sign hangs in the
gallery
warning patrons about “wet paint.”
The exhibition is titled “Fall Spectacle of Colors,” and the
landscapes the
artist includes were painted, for the most part on site, in Central
Texas,
Vermont, and Maine. The artist is not bent on recreating the landscape
exactly,
but rather on creating a new and personal reality based on the feel of
those
places. She paints entirely personalized visions of trees, shrubs, and
bushes.
The palette belongs to Garcia-Roig, rather than one specific time of
day or
stand of trees. And what a palette it is. Purple branches, lime green
squiggles, dabs of red berries, and blue green foliage against a cool
blue sky.
Each painting offers two separate kinds of experience. For the timid
viewer
who stands half a room away, there is the landscape itself with trees,
clearings, intertwining branches. In “Majestic Spanish Oak-Fall” the
background
slopes down to the right and you imagine the artist perched on uneven
terrain
making sketches, taking photographs, applying paint to canvas. For a
second
kind of experience, step closer and watch the landscape disappear in
favor of
an abstract composition of colors dabbed and slathered on canvas. The
image is
transformed. The artist says, “[I] want the viewer to feel the tension
of a
chaotic representation, eased a bit by recognizability and formal
coherence.”
Her success left this viewer literally pacing back and forth in the
gallery,
taking in the whole of each image, then moving closer for another look
at the
intricate surface.
San Antonio artist Bettie Ward has taken an especially keen interest
in the
surface of her most recent monotypes. In her current show at Flatbed
Press,
several unframed works that hang directly on the wall have been painted
with
bees wax, which gives them a seductive appearance. With most of the
work,
however, the surface is unenhanced. “Monet Series #14” is a multiple
plate
monotype and the only multi-colored work in the show. Ward’s more
subtle
black-and-white Xerox transfer prints with pencil drawings dominate.
All of
Ward’s work confirms her substantial experience with and willingness to
push
the print medium. Every four or five months, Ward comes to Austin to
work at
Flatbed press.
She calls the current exhibition “I Am Being.” Perhaps Ward’s prior
history as
an art consultant somehow informs her presentation, which, while
ostentatious,
serves ultimately to enhance and reward her images. The monotype “I Am
Series:
Flowerheaded Woman With Leaf Arms” is a spare image floating in an
extravagantly large frame. “Flowerheaded Woman” is something of a
signature
piece. In it, Ward uses photographs she has taken, including that of a
nude
female model. Ward makes variously sized Xerox images of the photos.
These are
coated with acetone and laid on damp paper by the artist. When they are
run
through an intaglio press, the Xerox image transfers to the paper. With
pencil,
the artist has drawn a vortex that swirls on top of this particular
figure, and
added leaf-arms and a flower head.
While the gallery press release speaks of the artist’s discussion
of
“mankind’s position in nature,” it is clear that her greater
preoccupation is
with womankind’s relationship to the world. “I am a soft piece of
precious
flesh,” written across the top of one large monotype, seems
excruciatingly
personal, and yet the vulnerability of the words and the pale print
with
drawing on top of it appeals to me. In “Flowered Woman Holding Stems,”
as in
the other prints in the series, the female figure appears to be merging
with
the natural landscape, creating new life. In a sense, all three artists
–
Whyne, Garcia-Roig, and Ward – redefine “landscape” to conform to their
personal sense of time, place, and order in the universe.
Fall Spectacle of Colorsby Lilian Garcia Roig is on
view
through June 14 at Galeria Sin Fronteras; I Am Beingby Bettie
Ward is
featured through June 3 at Flatbed Press; and paintings by Susan Whyne
are on
display through May 13 at Lyons Matrix Gallery.
This article appears in April 28 • 1995 and April 28 • 1995 (Cover).