The Joy of the Colorful Abstract Art at Mnuchin Gallery
Mnuchin Gallery in New York is currently showing The Joy of Color, a celebratory group show of colorful abstract art dating from 1939 to 2018. The exhibition offers a unique glimpse into the multitude of ways artists mobilize color as both content and concept. It features work by many of the historically important artists the gallery represents, such as Alexander Calder, Joan Mitchell, Mark Rothko, Morris Louis, and Sam Gilliam, alongside that of pioneering 20th century artists like Helen Frankenthaler, Alma Thomas, Kenneth Noland and Jack Bush. Also included are paintings by vital contemporary artists like Laura Owens and Sean Scully and relative newcomers like Sarah Crowner and Nathlie Provosty. For some New Yorkers, this show could represent the perfect opportunity to return to the Mnuchin space. Back in 2016, New York magazine art critic Jerry Saltz published a rant titled “Why I Am Not going to the Mnuchin Gallery Anymore.” He cited Steven Mnuchin—son of gallery owner Robert Mnuchin—being named Campaign Finance Chief for then Presidential candidate Donald Trump as his reason. Since that piece appeared, Steven Mnuchin was named United States Secretary of the Treasury. For reasons that have nothing to do with art, and everything to do with ideology, Saltz encouraged his readers to punish the art selling father for the perceived political sins of the son. Such fabricated drama is ridiculous, but nonetheless, anyone who gave in to the social pressure is created should consider The Joy of Color the perfect excuse to give the gallery a fresh chance. The exhibition is more like a walk through the modern and contemporary section of a small but important museum than a walk through a commercial gallery. The work demonstrates exactly how abstract art at its best has the capacity to transcend petty politics and open new doors of perception to what is beautiful and meaningful in this world.
Color as Strategy
The Joy of Color open with a humble Calder mobile hanging from the ceiling by a staircase. Red, yellow, white and grey abstract forms twirl gently in the breezes manufactured by our bodies and breath. Calder used color to get people to think about “the idea of detached bodies floating in space.” These whimsical colored forms offer something to take pleasure in while contemplating universal issues like physics and mechanics. Beyond the mobile, two small paintings flank either side of an archway. On the left is “Lode” (2018) by Nathlie Provosty. On the right is an untitled color field by Mark Rothko, ca. 1959. Both compositions are structured, flat, and rectangular. Both use subtle shifts in color to invite the viewer into a contemplative experience. Color is not content here so much as it is an entry-point into a perceptual encounters with our inner being. The Provosty painting especially, with its subtle variations of yellow, exposes nuanced differences between seemingly similar things—only by generalizing can we call it a monochrome. Every yellow is not the same.
Nathlie Provosty - Lode, 2018. Oil on linen on aluminum panel. 19 x 15 inches (48.3 x 38.1 cm). © Nathlie Provosty. Courtesy Mnuchin Gallery
Other paintings in the show that use color as a strategy to engage other types of content include “Aleph Series V” (1960) by Morris Louis, “Landline Green Bolt” (2018) by Sean Scully, an untitled painting by Laura Owens from 2006, and an untitled canvas from Joan Mitchell from 1958. The Louis painting attracts our eyes with vibratory color relationships around its edge, but as the colors fuse into darkness in the centre we become more aware of the surface: the unprimed canvas becomes one with the paint just as the colors and forms become one with each other—all melts into one. The Scully painting uses color to engage us in a consideration of brush strokes and textures, an invitation to appreciate the material qualities of paint. The Owens painting employs color as an emotional trigger. Its jubilant palette mirrors the figurative aspects of the work, which take pleasure in femininity, openness, and nature. Finally, the tumultuous brush marks on the Mitchell canvas show us how color can become synonymous with mood, expressing the innermost angst of the human spirit.
Sean Scully - Landline Green Bolt, 2018. Oil on aluminum. 85 x 75 inches (215.9 x 190.5 cm). © Sean Scully. Courtesy Mnuchin Gallery
Color as Space
Many paintings in The Joy of Color employ color in a more formal sense, showing color as an effective creator and delineator of visual space. “Nature’s Red Impressions” (1968) by Alma Thomas offers an epic elucidation of this concept. From afar, the colors declare a linear structure, dividing the visual architecture into vertical bars. Upon closer examination the columns fracture into a multitude of organic shapes. The white space between the shapes and columns asserts itself as a world beyond the surface. Similar magic is at work in “Strawberry” (1970) by Jack Bush. A massive, pinkish “U” shape echoes with its hue the title of the painting, while a lighter pink background pockmarked with dark splotches establishes dimensionality. A complimentary color bar along the bottom of the canvas both flattens the space and tricks the eye into sensing a combination horizon line and kinetic parade of geometric shapes.
Alma Thomas - Nature's Red Impressions, 1968. Acrylic on canvas. 51 x 49 1/2 inches (129.5 x 125.7 cm). © Alma Thomas. Courtesy Mnuchin Gallery
Among the most eye-catching spatial compositions in the show are “Elberta” (1975) by Helen Frankenthaler, “Mysteries: Aglow” (2002) by Kenneth Noland, and “The Wave (Urszula)” (2014) by Sarah Crowner. Frankenthaler creates vast openness in her soak-stained painting, opening the eye to an expansive and luminous visual universe; Noland achieves the opposite effect, simplifying and centralizing space with his familiar bullseye composition; Crowner organizes space into harmonious dissonance with vibratory, biomorphic red and orange wave forms. Yet the most profound creation of space comes courtesy of “Atmosphere” (1972) by Sam Gilliam. His signature technique of beveling the edges of his surface allows the colors to create space beyond the physical boundaries of the work. The painting invites us to wonder about what lies beyond the limits of what we can see—a vital concern to us in this age, and one that perhaps even Mr. Saltz might want to stop by the gallery to consider. The Joy of Color is on view through 8 December 2018.
Featured image: The Joy of Color - group exhibition at Mnuchin Gallery, New York, 2018. © Tom Powel Imaging. Courtesy Mnuchin Gallery
By Phillip Barcio
