"Artists continue the evolution of abstract painting" by Matthew Kangas in the Seattle Times

Friday, November 21, 2003
Artists continue the evolution of abstract painting
by Matthew Kangas, special to the Seattle Times

When is a painting not a painting, but a drawing or a sculpture? When it is made by one of two abstract artists exhibiting this month, Deborah Bell at Ballard Fetherston Gallery and Cordy Ryman at William Traver Gallery. Both artists are stretching the limits of what defines a painting, a time-honored undertaking dating back to the earliest years of the 20th century.

For that matter, what is an abstract painting? The dominant artistic trend of the past century, abstract art developed in two main directions: art that "abstracts" or reduces recognizable images, as in Bell's case; and art that declares its own physical structure and makeup, often through geometry and pattern or the frank use of materials, as with Ryman. Both strains as practiced by Bell and Ryman have led to colorful, strong and provocative works of art.

Bell, a 47-year-old Cornish College alumna and Seattle resident, makes great strides in her 11th solo show since 1990. Each painting falls into one of two categories: those with a central, dividing "horizon" line; and those with an undivided monochromatic background that is covered by a scattered distribution of ovals, circles and other small shapes, including ladders. " Veil" and "Here and There" (both 2003) are strong examples of the first type. In these works, with the halfway-up divider, white dots are placed beautifully across the two-tone, light-and-dark-blue backgrounds. "Dancer's Veil" is the best of all, with quietly shimmering reds, oranges and yellows. Since most of the paintings are square, averaging 4-by-4 feet, such compositions seem less pictorial and more abstract. Even better are the big rectangular and square paintings without dividers, like "Goofy's Lookout" and "Swimming Pool." They stride forth, declaring a random field of bright color with bouncy or hovering darker and lighter shapes.

In both cases, though, the outlines of circles rather than solid shapes push all the pictures toward a drawing category, setting up a sketchy quality that doesn't measure up to the rich, painterly backgrounds. With its evenly distributed range of dots, "Goofy's Lookout" may be the direction for Bell to follow.

Ryman omits drawing altogether, offering, instead, multi-plane wooden, plastic or metal supports garnered from found objects. An abstract painting's normally flat, two-dimensional properties are jettisoned in favor of bright-an-dark areas of color covering intersecting and overlapping planes.

When the paintings are small (1.5 to 2 feet square), Ryman's brilliant color sense ignites and transforms such humble materials. With nearly every square inch covered by paint, coupled with such undulating surfaces, the viewer's eye gets an exciting workout. "Red Stairs," "Orange Perch" and "Green Stripe Wing" (all 2003) pop off the wall visually, pushing them toward sculpture but without the full possibilities of three dimensions, so long as they hang on a wall.

In his fourth show at Traver since 1997, the 32-year-old New York resident refines such spatial and chromatic matters, but with this body of work, makes no huge advances in such modest constructions. That is, unless one counts two larger works — "Art Spear," which backs into a corner at 10 feet high, and a quasi-figurative work, "Wall Snake," three simple stripe-painted wood scraps that climb to 5 feet high. Closer to sculpture, but still paintings, they, too, may point in a direction for Ryman to follow.

Caught in a fruitful, and far from frustrating, in-between area, Ryman joins Bell in redefining abstract painting for the current century.

Exhibit reviews "Deborah Bell," 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, through Dec. 6, Ballard Fetherston Gallery, 818 E. Pike St., Seattle (206-322-9440). " Cordy Ryman," 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, noon-5 p.m. Sunday, through Dec. 3, William Traver Gallery, 110 Union St., Seattle (206-587-6501).

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