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| Ross Bleckner
is famous for making a drama out of a crisis - whether the AIDS epidemic
or the so-called crisis in painting. To varying degrees, since the 1980s,
his work has addressed both themes. Humming-birds trapped in the bars of
fuzzy, op art stripes; fields of darkness flashed with phantasmagoric traces;
the light falling through domes - Bleckner's imagery openly courts accusations
of melodrama and camp. Yet his diverse work has, at its core, the treatment
of the paint surface - often a rich brew of oil, wax and metallic pigments
that adds a visceral gravitas to kitsch subject matter such as
chandeliers and funeral urns. Bleckner seems to have ditched overt melancholia, though. A more rigorous, structuralapproach has given rise to the organic patterning of an internalized world. Closed loops |
that
resemble intestinal tracts, strings of pearls or peas in pods form interlocking
patters over a background of pulsating cell-like forms. As they move around
the canvas, they become malignant - flashing with sickly green and orange.
Everywhere elegance threatens to topple into excess. The 12-foot span of
'New Radical' is covered with a series of overlapping discs. These delicate
traces - like bubbles bursting on the surface - move through deep crimson
to rich oxides, some encrusted like dried blood. An arrow points ominously
to one of the cells. Is this a picture of health or of infection? The troubling
subtext gives these ravishing images their bite. Bleckner hasn't shown in
this country since 1987. This welcome return highlights the need for a full
retrospective. Martin Comer |