Reconstructions:
The Imprint of Nature/The Impact of Science The Artist
DOVE BRADSHAW
Contingency Pour, 1994-96
Silver and liver of sulfur on linen
Collection of the artist Enlisting chance, Dove Bradshaw's process connects art with science: Contingency Pour is both a painting and a scientific experiment. The image is formed by the chemical reaction of liver of sulfur (sulfurated potash) with silver. This process is visually unpredictable, although the artist has some control when she applies the liver of sulfur. The immediate reaction of the chemicals creates an overall image, but this image changes as nature-light, humidity, and temperaturebecomes a catalyst. Over time (from months to years) the painting continues to change, becoming a visual record of oxidation. RICHMOND BURTON Shivaesque, 1996
Oil on linen
Courtesy of Cheim & Reid Gallery, New York
Using a grid as the underlying structure of his abstractions, Richmond Burton reveals his background in architecture. Since he worked under 1. M. Pei to devise the gridded structure for the Louvre pyramid, his patterning has become increasingly loose and organic. In his complex, conceptual compositions, invented forms suggest a variety of aspects of the natural and scientific world: cells, molecules, fractals, spermatozoa, and computer-related forms. LYDIA DONA From Duchamp to Retinal Disassociation, 1998
Oil, acrylic, and sign paint on canvas
Courtesy of Von Lintel & Nusser, New York Visualizing her paintings as architectural plans, Dona works with a limited number of elements, which are repeated over and over. Her paintings can also resemble mechanical diagrams, and are, in fact, often based on drawings from car manuals. These machinery drawings can be read as a reference to the work of Dada artist Marcel Duchamp, who elevated common manufactured objects to the level of art. Like Duchamp, Dona uproots the elements and redisplays them, resulting in a multiplicity of readings of her work: "I don't want systems. I want to empty out systems, open up other ones, rupture them to create motion and liquidity." VERNON FISHER Speckled Trout, 1996
Oil and blackboard slating on wood
Courtesy of the artist and Charles Cowles Gallery, New York Vernon Fisher's work Speckled Trout addresses issues of memory and recall. The erasures on the depicted blackboard similarly mark the emergence and recession of images, some geometric, others, notably the monkey, organic. The "steps" can be seen as tracing connections from monkey to domesticated man, as indicated by the geometric "house." Yet, the narrative text seems to mock unfounded social interpretations of Darwin's theory, as well as any concept of scientific "progress." MELISSA GWYN Sun on Your Back, 1996
Oil on board
Courtesy of Feigen Contemporary, New York Melissa Gwyn links science and art by connecting the visible with the invisible-the physical world with its conceptual underpinnings. By focusing on isolated fragments of nature, her paintings take on still-life qualities and refer to molecular and cellular structures, as well as medical procedures.
Drawing on the tradition of Vanitas paintings of seventeenth-century Netherlands, Gwyn's work explores similar questions of temporality. Her paintings deal with the precariousness of life and often veer between the beautiful and the grotesque so that a painting of a biological organism takes on metastatic qualities and simultaneously reflects life and death. JANE HAMMOND Untitled (31), 1991
Oil on canvas
Collection of the artist Contemporary physics has grappled with issues regarding the position, trajectory, and velocity of particles. In this enigmatic painting, Jane Hammond records the path of a fly walking on a wall. The artist suggests, with the use of a broken line, that this pathway, too, is difficult to define or predict. Her grid format indicates that the artist is appropriating the objective procedure of a scientist, who might wish to document such an event. ELLEN K. LEVY Shared Premises: Morris Elephant/Noland Plane, 1999
Oil on wood
Courtesy of Trans Hudson Gallery, New York The inspiration for Ellen K. Levy's painting was a display of the history of transportation at Prague's National Technical Museum. Levy playfully explores a provocative convergence among biological, technological, and aesthetic systems that is at odds with the often-cited dichotomy between science as objective and art as subjective. Just as the animal world is subject to manipulation (e.g. genetic engineering), technological inventions (e.g. planes) have a history akin to biological evolution. Painting bonds these disparate worlds and evokes an evolutionary process. Levy conjures up an elephant trunk with abstract gestures and creates a plane's tail through minimalist streamlining. These painted images supply the title, "Shared Premises: Morris Elephant/Noland Plane," and refer to the work of modernist artists Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland. DOUG MARTIN Glazed, 1996
Oil and maps on canvas
Courtesy of the artist and Charles Cowles Gallery, New York Doug Martin juxtaposes a naturalistic forest scene with a topographical map of the New York/Vermont border near Lake Champlain. On the left side of the painting, the map is submerged under the forest; on the right side, the forest recedes and the mapped waterway flows into the forest stream. The two views merge into the white of the snow, map, and canvas. DONNA MOYLAN Local Causality, 1999
Oil, acrylic, and physics manuscript pages
Collection of the artist Pages from a physics article, "Quantum Geometry with Intrinsic Local Causality," are embedded in this dramatic landscape. These pages state some of the underlying laws of nature. Juxtaposing specific scientific documents with an ephemeral vision of nature, Moylan creates art that absorbs the scientific principles into the experience of the landscape. ALEXIS ROCKMAN Omission: The Fossil Record, 1991
Oil on wood
Collection of David Dorsky Alexis Rockman uses natural history dioramas as a point of departure. His paintings often juxtapose deadly and gory fights for survival with beautiful, iridescent glimpses of nature. In these effects of light, his paintings are reminiscent of such nineteenth-century luminists as Martin Johnson Heade. JUAN USLE Contraposto, 1998-99
Vinyl, dispersion, and pigment on canvas
Courtesy of Cheim & Read Gallery, New York With its sky-blue diagonal and ochre ground, Contraposto resembles the abstract landscapes Juan Usle produced in his native Spain, before moving to New York; yet, a second look unveils the graphic record of an electrocardiogram or other scientific data. This imagery also registers the artist's movement through the process of painting. Although the continuous lines resemble a scientific measurement, the artist deliberately avoids duplicating the precision of a calibrated instrument. DARREN WATERSTON Cascade, 1999
Oil on wood panel
Courtesy of the artist and Charles Cowles Gallery, New York Darren Waterston's renderings of flora and fauna are fantastic and enigmatic, yet totally convincing because the artist bases these on actual observations of nature. An avid reader of natural science books, Waterston studies botanical and entomological specimens as inspiration for his paintings. What appeals to Waterston, however, is nature's mysterious and fantastic side. His paintings transport us on a j ourney through the microcosm of nature, for which the vast and impenetrable cosmos serves as the backdrop. © 2000 Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College