Selections 19

Selections 19 featured the works of thirteen emerging artists and opened in 1982. Selections 19 was the latest in a continuing series of group exhibitions chosen through the Center's Artists' Viewing Program. The artists in the exhibition were: William Blumenfeld, Stefany Blyn, Calvin Brown, Frank Fristachi, Jeff Gompertz, Peter Halley, Michael Kellers, Iona Kleinhaut, Nancy Lifschutz, George Pérez Orta, Michael Roman, Mary Agnes Smith, and Joanne Stryker. The works in the exhibition comprised a wide variety of styles and techniques in keeping with the Center's broad definition of drawing — any unique work on or of paper.

Abstract works included those by William Blumenfeld, Calvin Brown and Jeff Gompertz. William Blumenfeld's watercolors were chromatic abstractions of the figure, while Calvin Brown's works were aligned with the traditions of American abstract painting and were concerned with a deliberate animation of the picture plane. Jeff Gompertz worked only in black and white — his oil pastels were directly provoked by The Cantos of Ezra Pound. Large banner-like works on brown paper by Mary Agnes Smith were painterly plans and diagrams for visionary projects. Iona Kleinhaut's heavily painted works found their sources in undersea life. Energetically drawn charcoal studies of the capitals of classical columns were characteristic of the work of Joanne Stryker.

Contemporary uses of figurative material included Peter Halley's black drawings on photosensitive acetate which were actually negative contact prints. Frank Fristachi combined references to art history and personal experiences in layered sheets of acetate, and Michael Kellers based his compositions on classical figures and geometric shapes. Stefany Blyn's work, exclusively black and white, was done in groups according to related themes. Works falling within more traditional guidelines for drawings included those by Nancy Lifschutz, George Pérez Orta and Michael Roman. Watercolors by Nancy Lifschutz were contemporary household and bathroom interiors; George Pérez Orta's works were selections from sketchbooks recording the artist's travels to Italy, and Michael Roman's portraits and self-portraits were watercolor and pen and ink.

All of the artists in Selections 19 took part in a symposium on Wednesday, October 20 at 7:30 p.m. Artists discussed their work and answered questions from the audience.