Floral Arrangements
Catherine Howe and Susan J. Goldman offer soft and hard variations on a decorative staple
Catherine Howe, “Iridescent White Painting: Violet/Green (candytuft) (Addison/Ripley Fine Art)
FLOWERS ARE EVERYWHERE, not only in nature but also stylized into motifs for wallpaper, ceramics, and other household items. The latter sort of bloom is among the inspirations for local printmaker Susan J. Goldman's "Squaring the Flower" series, some fine examples of which are on exhibit at the Athenaeum. There's also a resemblance, perhaps unintended, between floral ornamentation and the most striking works in Catherine Howe's "All That Glimmers." Most of the pieces in the New York artist's Addison/Ripley Fine Art are monotypes, one-of-kind prints made by transferring pigment to paper from a painted matrix. There are also a few paintings whose swirled, thickly applied pigments suggest plaster embellishments.
Howe's monotypes are fluid and expressionistic, and hint at Asian calligraphy. They're mostly titled "Wallflower" plus a parenthetical rundown of visual elements. The forms twist along the pathways blazed by spontaneous brushstrokes, while the textures are complex and striated like muscle tissue. The churning gestures are sometimes complemented by Easter-egg-like colored ovals that seem to float serenely above the freehand tumult.
The monotypes are printed on silk, Japanese mulberry paper, or metallic paper. The shimmering effects of the shiny surfaces are echoed by the materials used in the white-on-white paintings. These are made with a mix of acrylics and interference pigments, whose embedded mica fragments provide luminosity. The hues appear to shift subtly with different lighting or vantage points. The shapes are organic, but the twinkling surfaces give them an industrial vibe.
Whether the white paint looks more like stucco trim or wedding-cake icing, it's applied with expressionist brio. The pictures flirt with abstraction, yet cohere in places into buds and blossoms. Thick strokes loosely define the composition, while botanical details are inscribed delicately into white blobs. The effect is engagingly paradoxical: The pictures are immediate but considered, energetic yet meticulous. It's as if Howe set out to explode the floral still life, only to employ the residue to halfway reassemble it.
Susan J. Goldman, “Squaring the Flower VI, #5” (The Athenaeum)
GOLDMAN MAKES SCREENPRINTS AND WOODCUTS, which don't have the liquid qualities of Howe's paintings and monotypes. Yet there's a strong sense of mutability to Goldman's exquisitely designed and executed pictures, in which hard-edged abstract forms overlap, and sometimes fuse, with what the artist's statement calls "Victorian decorative art." Robust hues and intricate detailing, whether arranged in harmony or counterpoint, send wallpaper-like motifs on a cosmic trip.
The "Squaring the Flower" prints divide a square into four quadrants, in which engraved floral images devolve into decorative patterns, and sometimes simply into fields of vivid color such as a block of lime green. The bloom renderings can be emphatic or ghostly, as if fading into the past or from memory. The prints are static, of course, but strongly convey instability and incremental change. The effect is to conflate Goldman's artistic method with larger processes of nature and geometry.
Susan J. Goldman, “Red Sky” (The Athenaeum)
This selection, curated by Elizabeth Brown, also features tondos (circular pictures) that are printed, like some of Howe's "Wallflowers," on handmade Japanese mulberry paper. These round monotypes feature gently rough edges and gradated colors. A pair of them, "Red Sky" and "Blue Sky," are split by horizon lines so that they suggest seascapes. But the colors are as bright as in Goldman's other work, so the tondos are as much swaggering pop-art as they are tranquil nature scenes.
The show includes two smaller prints of flowers that appear to be both in and on top or ornate vases. The ambiguity is characteristic of artist's prints, which radically remake century-old engravings while acknowledging their prim appeal. Her style is boldly contemporary, yet Goldman is something of a preservationist.
Catherine Howe: All That Glimmers: luminous works on paper, silk & canvas
Through Nov. 30 at Addison/Ripley Fine Art, 1670 Wisconsin Ave. NW. addisonripleyfineart.com. 202-338-5180.
Susan J. Goldman
Through Dec. 8 at the Athenaeum, 201 Prince St., Alexandria. nvfaa.org. 703-548-0035.