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Challenges, Surprises and Realism in 4 Shows By PHYLLIS BRAFF
Some of the most creative work in photography is being done by artists who stage their scenarios artificially in the studio. The cheeky, adventur ous examples in this overview are by seven young, sharp New York and California photographers who probe thematic limits for eroticism, dark visions and political expression. All explore ramifications of things being not what they seem. Percep tion, attitudes and preconceived bias es are challenged. In Gregory Crewd son's handsome example, "Natural Wonder," lush pink tulips covering a constructed pseudosuburban back drop Initially Set off a pleasurable response. This makes the reverse shock all the more potent, however, when one notices sinister components like aggressive insects and a furry bird carcass. The bulk of the exhibition considers attitudes toward sexuality, always with strong original visual material. David Levinthal positions dolls in erotic postures, and then gives everything an esthetic, partly obscuring haze by blurring the focus. Viewers gradually become aware that the image is toying with their sensibilities.
This selection of Mr. Smith's work is drawn from the landscape section of the 25-year retrospective organized last year by the International Museum of Photography in Rochester. Several enlargements made for that occasion are here, too, although Mr. Smith's reputation is based on the sharply detailed Images that he achieves in contact prints made with a large-format camera. Patterns extracted from nature dominate these taut compositions and seem to mark the artist as a dedicated formalist, although examples characterized by uncanny textures - frequently twased on fossilized sur- faces - call attention to the sensual side of his approach. The translation of nature to black and white and, the emphasis on rigidity, precision and control make the scenes feel more like products of the artist's mind than glimpses of reality. There is never any doubt that the views are predetermined and execut- ed with obvious patience, waiting, for example, for dark shadow's to give boulders protruding from water a slick surface that will make them resemble a school of glistening dolphins. Surprise is an element in some of the best pieces. in an aerial view of Canyon del Muerto, Ariz., a large central dark gray land mass suddenly reads as the silhouette of a fully leafed tree when the eye discovers a single real tree with that shape in the lower foreground. Another intriguing image eliminates any sense of scale and has such extreme dark and light contrasts that thin tree trunks and branches appear to float like random scribble strokes. Among the too-cool too-assured images, however, there are some that raise questions about nature's de- tails' being manipulated for no significant end.
Although each of theses midcareer painters takes a different tack toward realism, all tend to close in on a specific subject. Mr. Inyard's luminous small photrealist canvases are essays on the American diner as architechture, as urban symbol and as a theme charged with sociological content. There are day and night views of structures that range from glitzy to abandoned. Handsomely modulated colors In "Wickford Diner" make this a particular gem. Mr. Mizdal is best known for his combinations of interior and exterior, with gardens, skies or water views presented through a window format that permits a scaffolding of architectural elements. "Morning Clerestory" is the most successful work in this uneven show. Certainly the most dramatic canvas is "Draped Window," with its wind-driven billowing white curtain. Mr. Chorao composes his landscapes with a familiar vocabulary of streams, boulders, rustic bridges and waterfalls, yet the dry, chalky quality of his pigment gives a deliberate sense of artifice to the green, brown and gray tones. At times the white highlights intensify the feeling of a filmy veil. When the approach is directed to dense flower-garden themes, color patterns have a bit more vitality. |
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