Page 49 - Studio International - January 1971

paintings and sculptures. Her group exhibi-
tions invariably offer a sensitive and important
• selection of the kinds of work being done in the
district. In general I would say that this is the
most serious gallery functioning in SoHo.
Among the outstanding younger artists in
Cooper's stable are the sculptor Christopher
' Wilmarth, whose recent experiments with
heavy glass constructions and relief are among
• the most original essays I've seen in years, and
Harvey Quaytman, a painter whose shaped
canvases are nearly always designed to express
the satisfaction still available in diaphonous
colour and the linear arabesque. Also Edwin
Ruda, who has returned to an exuberant
expressionist abstract style; David Diao ; and
• sculptors Charles Ginnever, Robert Grosvenor
and Peter Forakis. The environmental strain
was represented by a recent exhibition by
Alan Shields, whose wall hangings and woven
• drawings in space filled the gallery with a kind
of insouciant, ephemeral pleasantry.
Across the street from Paula Cooper is the
garage-like gallery of Reese Palley. Sprawling
with cavernous space on two floors, this gallery
is well adapted to the outsize canvas or sculp- Enrique Castro-Cid Jake Berthot
2
• ture, but proves defeating to more intimate Painting Untitled 1970
works. There seems to be a very loose organi- Photo: Eric Pollitzer Enamel on paper
30 x 22 1/2 inches
zation—it is hard to discover who will be Photo: Edward Peterson
represented by the gallery—which functions
best in presenting first chances to the swarm- Still on Greene Street, an enormous space spaces established by the abstract expressionist
ing colony of artists in New York. whose proprietor is Geoffrey Lew, intended to generation has led him to experiment with
One block over is the second-oldest venture, be available to unscheduled artists who have metric division, transparencies and depthward
the Richard Feigen Gallery on historic Greene events or new and enormous works to show illusion with an intensity I have found in very
Street. Originally, Feigen took advantage of and who could never find a comparable space. few contemporary painters. He is surely one of
the lower rents in the area to establish a ware- This casual arrangement is much appreciated, Karp's strongest figures.
house for his uptown gallery. But during the and should, if it survives, be a boon to the local West Broadway is host to fantasy names, and
past year he has clarified his operation. In the showmen. what I'm told is an extension of O. K. Harris
uptown chrome and red-carpeted palace, he Westward is the rapidly burgeoning West across the street is called Hundred Acres. This
shows uptown shows (sometimes of old Broadway enclave, housing four galleries seems to be a place for casual shows of smaller
masters such as Monet) and conducts a already, and more to come. The really big- works, or one-man exhibitions of artists that
characteristically uptown business. In the time dealers such as Castelli, Dwan and are not quite established yet, and may never
downtown bailiwick, the young, the adven- Emmerich, are on their way down. The be. More fantasy, both literal and figurative,
turous, the novel, alternate with some of the biggest is, of course, 0. K. Harris, run by the marks the Flatsfixed Gallery, which is installed
well-established names Feigen has handled inimitable former associate of Leo Castelli, a couple of doors down from O. K. Harris in a
over the past few years. Currently there is an Ivan Karp. Two huge showrooms, a smaller sculptural setting reminiscent of Renaissance
exhibition of paintings and drawings by the one in the back, plenty of storage space, and a playgrounds for adults, but without the con-
versatile Chilean resident, Enrique Castro- constant population of visiting artists and summate perfection. In the all-too picturesque
Cid. These are all playful studies of human collectors make 0. K. Harris one of the sculptured bays, Flatsfixed shows graphics
figures and still-lifes, bent into strange con- liveliest, if not loveliest, galleries in the dis- mostly, and graphics of the most recent ten-
figurations as if seen in the funhouse mirrors of trict. That uptown savvy of Karp has stood dency, with a great deal of technological skill
Tivoli. Castro-Cid's adventure in anamor- him in good stead. His is an eclectic list, brought to bear on relatively trivial motifs.
phosis is most appealing in his drawings where designed to lure not only the old pop lovers There is also, across the street, an artists' co-
the firm linear traits are mitigated by intrigu- from uptown, but the new afficionados of the operative that moved downtown, the Spect-
ing half-stated numbers and graphs. In the new (at least he thinks so) lyrical abstraction. rum Gallery, where the level is not always high,
paintings, a slick illustrator's facility spoils the You can find social comment, realism, pop, but there are occasional refreshing surprises.
game (although his tender rendition of minimalism, pornography and photographic These and a few other smaller enterprises have
flowers speaks of other possibilities for him). representationalism, and whatever else you made their mark on the neighbourhood. A
A few doors from Feigen is Max Hutchinson's crave in this grand new emporium of the now. friend tells me that his plumber has now got
gallery, a strangely hermetic, poorly-illumi- At present Karp is exhibiting the paintings an avant-garde collage of plumbers' parts in
nated place in which the paintings invariably and drawings of the most distinguished of his his window, and another dry-goods factory
seem bloodless and the sculptures remote. But new young painters, Jake Berthot. This is has jazzed up its front window to match the
• the Australian dealer has tried to offer possi- Berthot's first gallery exhibition, although he new tone of the neighbourhood. The pro-
bilities to the young and unknown as well as was shown in the Jewish Museum show of prietary attitude of artists and dealers, some-
better-known artists, and has, to his credit, `beautiful' paintings and sculptures put times in conflict with the old Italian community
several good shows over the past year-and-a- together by Tedjes Englesmith last year. His that has long been in the neighbourhood, has
half: serious probe of the emotion-compelling found common cause with them in indignation