How To Be a Feminist and an Abstract Expressionist

Gallery-Going

By JOHN GOODRICH
March 16, 2006

Louise Fishman has been a feminist and lesbian activist for some 40 years, but for the past two decades she has pursued a manner of painting closely allied with that most macho of schools, Abstract Expressionism. Ms. Fishman's brand of "Ab-Ex" is distinctly her own, however.

While Ms. Fishman's gestures are as broad as Kline's or de Kooning's, they show a greater measure of deliberation. The artist employs some decidedly indelicate tools - toothed trowels, scrapers, and sandpaper - but her compositions, disciplined by loose, underlying grids, take on an almost stately presence. And unlike Ab-Ex, which despite its chest-thumping angst was largely apolitical, Ms. Fishman hasn't hesitated to introduce topical experience into her canvases; following a trip to Auschwitz and Terezin in 1988, she incorporated into her images spare, brooding, dark forms, as well as the actual ashes of death camp victims.

Ms. Fishman's work has lightened considerably since then. Her 15 large oil canvases currently at Cheim & Read feature calligraphic blue-green or black strokes against fields of cool greens or wan yellows and pinks. These background planes are fairly thinly painted but sometimes several layers deep, suggesting a prolonged building process. In "Pink and Blue and You" (2003), an arabesque of broad blue lines departs playfully from the underlying pattern of verticals and horizontals, turning into a loose-limbed exploration of the canvas's grayish-pink expanse. Tighter in its rhythms is "The Art of Losing" (2003), whose subdued hues and compact grid work impart a regal somberness.

Freely brushed horizontals of burnt sienna, light green, and gray in "Loose Change"(2005) give the impression of a whirlwind of autumn leaves. "Breaking and Entering" (2005) is more hierarchical in its forms. In the depths, irregular red-brown shapes move across a pale yellow-green ground. Layered on top, long, fluid, blue strokes thrust across the surface, which was subsequently raked with a large, toothed trowel, slightly distancing the motions beneath. The forms, as well as the title, suggest a violation of sanctums, leaving a lingering impression - but not the blatant message - of sexual violence.

Some works, such as "A Few Things for Themselves" (2005), feel more diffused, as if they were loose gatherings of sensations. "Moon and Movies" (2003), though, is of another order; its deep aqua-blues and limpid yellowgreens evoke the ephemeral qualities of moonlight, but their off-balance intervals galvanize the design. A dark arabesque circulates agilely among the colors, releasing at several points into brisk verticals that strain to reach beyond the self-contained zones of blue. The rhythms - taut yet lyrical - reveal a purposeful, vibrant restraint.

The self-possession of "Moon and Movies" highlights Ms. Fishman's departure from the aesthetics of classic Abstract Expressionism. Her canvases exude a sense of practical fulfillment, as if her aims were less exotic and a little more mature, driven not so much by an urgent, needful searching as by hopes of finding.

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Unwary visitors to the Painting Center's "Artful Jesters" show, a cacophony of pure reds and yellows and colored baubles, may suppose for a moment they've stumbled onto a carnival. They'd be close; the humor in this selfdescribed "confection of wackiness, parody, pathos, and satire harnessed to intelligence and wit" is at times sly, but it's all delivered with eye-popping energy. The 20 artists include such familiar veterans as Robert Arneson, Roy De Forest, Red Grooms, Gladys Nilsson, Jim Nutt, and Peter Saul.

Toby Buonagurio's pink, blue, and gold "Poodle Puff Gun Shoes" (1993) sets the tone with its sheer, over-the-top flamboyance. Miniature poodles and pistols bedeck this sculpture of impossibly high-heeled shoes, making it more of a statement about fashion than a fashion statement.

Several pieces refer to historical artworks. Mr. Saul's "Picasso's Girl in a Mirror #2" (1978), a Day-Glo version of a Modernist icon, tartly sends up the commercialization of high art. Mr. Grooms's "Dali Salad" (1981), a foldedpaper likeness of a bug-eyed, simpering Salvador Dali,wonderfully captures the Surrealist's showy narcissism. Also mocking Dali is Jim Picco's "Knock-Kneed Chauffeur" (1997), though its description of boney,bulbous limbs protruding from a giant nose so resembles an authentic Dali that it toes the line between homage and parody. Strategically placed near the gallery's stairs, Charles Parness's painting "Nude and Coffee Cup Descending the Stairs" (1996) satirizes Duchamp with its multiplied images of man and cup tumbling headlong down a flight of steps.

If some of these works amount to humorous one-liners, others gain resonance through their pictorial richness. The quietly radiant hues and velvety surface of Jim Nutt's pastel, "Misshapen but Appropriate" (1984), impart a delicate rigor to two grotesquely distorted nudes. An elegant, crisp pacing of forms lends Trevor Winkfield's fanciful painting "The Astrologer"(2001) a meditative note rare among the works here.

Most complex of all in its imagery is Warrington Colescott's color intaglio print "The Last Judgment: Judgment" (1987-88). In this whimsical image, a businessman calmly watches a wall of TVs depicting violent scenes, while hellish beasts and buxom angels - one sporting dark glasses - struggle to possess several bystanders. The conceit of the image, with an unfettered imagination showing in dozens of details, rewards a prolonged viewing.

Fishman until March 25 (547 W. 25th Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues, 212-242-7727). Prices: $55,000-$85,000. Artful Jesters until March 25 (52 Greene Street, between Grand and Broome Streets, 212-343-1060). Prices: Not all works for sale; remaining works $1,500-$45,000.