Beatrice Caracciolo: Charles Cowles Gallery, Inc.There were three kinds of works in Beatrice Caracciolo's recent exhibition: exquisitely animated abstract expressionist ex·pres·sion·ism n. A movement in the arts during the early part of the 20th century that emphasized subjective expression of the artist's inner experiences. ex·pres drawings; others that look more like landscapes (and which introduce art-historically familiar material in the form of allusions to Chinese landscape and Japanese calligraphy The History of Japanese calligraphy (日本書道史) has been heavily influenced by Chinese calligraphy. For a long time, the most esteemed calligrapher in Japan had been Wang Xizhi, a Chinese calligrapher in the 4th ), and unexpectedly bold suspended or freestanding sculptures comprised of zinc sheets mounted on wooden substructures. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The excited lines of the drawings--small and intimate compared to the immense planar sculptures--and the textures of the sculptures--gray mottled mottled /mot·tled/ (mot´ld) marked by spots or blotches of different colors or shades. with luminous streaks--both signal Caracciolo's preoccupation with touch and surface. The resolutely abstract geometric sculptures form whole environments, yet their surfaces have the same tactile quality as the drawings. This is ingrained in the very fabric of the zinc rather than "applied" to its surface, but the peculiar mixture of raw and refined consistencies is present in both forms. The compositions of these two different bodies of work also have an odd resemblance: The zinc planes are variously sized and eccentrically arranged, as are the tangled lines of the drawings. Interestingly, where the planes align there is a conspicuous break in surface that looks like an incision and stands out with a curious stridency, as though existing independently of the bleak atmosphere surrounding it. These "fault lines" or seams signal the constructed nature of the work but also have an expressive assertiveness and appeal that brings them into an ironic relationship with the seemingly more quixotic quix·ot·ic also quix·ot·i·cal adj. 1. Caught up in the romance of noble deeds and the pursuit of unreachable goals; idealistic without regard to practicality. 2. lines of the drawings. In Caracciolo's more-or-less completely abstract drawings, instinct is alive and well, while in those that suggest landscape it becomes self-contained and civilized and in the sculptures diffuses into melancholic mel·an·chol·ic adj. 1. Affected with or being subject to melancholy. 2. Of or relating to melancholia. atmosphere alleviated by beatific be·a·tif·ic adj. Showing or producing exalted joy or blessedness: a beatific smile. [Latin be moments of light. Caracciolo, however unwittingly, retraces the development of gesturalism from the free play of what post-Freudian theorist Anton Ehrenzweig calls nongestalt form(lessness) through more formally controlled imagery to a final stage of gestalt-form(alization) and system(ization). Ironically, the sense of ultimate inwardness in·ward·ness n. 1. Intimacy; familiarity. 2. Preoccupation with one's own thoughts or feelings; introspection. 3. The intrinsic or indispensable properties of something; essence. Noun 1. that Harold Bloom argues is achieved by the best art is most evident in the sculptures, in which impulsive gesture fades to a subliminal subliminal /sub·lim·i·nal/ (-lim´i-n'l) below the threshold of sensation or conscious awareness. sub·lim·i·nal adj. 1. Below the threshold of conscious perception. Used of stimuli. suggestion, and the determined force evident in the works on paper seems muted, a melancholy residue. There is a tragic energy in Caracciolo's drawings; it's there in the gray that seems to shadow the black lines of the abstract works and in the quasi landscapes' mountainous outlines. The question is, when this pall lifts, what kind of future will stand revealed? |
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