a&e | ART REVIEW
Land and Sea
Hank Pitcher: The Long View. At Sullivan Goss, An American Gallery. Shows through February 2, 2014. Reviewed by Mitchell Kriegman
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hy paint landscape? Hank Pitcher has an answer that may be more far-reaching and interesting than any previously offered. To say that Pitcher is a painter of California landscapes is like saying Monet painted water lilies. Pitcher’s work reflects the legacy of pleinair painting while being influenced by the sparse realism of Edward Hopper and the echoes of WPA artists. Overlooked is his compelling relationship to the pivotal abstract expressionist Richard Diebenkorn, who was equally drawn to landscapes both abstract and representational. In their synthesis of natural and formal, these powerfully constructed pictures at Sullivan Goss — the first since his 40-year retrospective at the Wiegand Gallery eight months ago — are startling for their clarity and simplicity. The exhibit includes a number of small pieces, several large landscapes, and one 17-foot-long work. Each painting has a focus and tension that creates figurative, formal, historical, and emotional levels within — all fused together in a way that demands to be taken on its own terms. This is landscape as a springboard for a discourse on perception and painting. “Sedgwick Valley Evening,” one of the midsize canvases, depicts the rolling and rollicking hills of Sedgwick Reserve. The PADDLE OUT: “Tri Fin at Augustine” rises lay sensuously along each other like hangs at Sullivan Goss, An American naked bodies across the land, contrasting Gallery as part of the ongoing Hank sharply with the sheer flat roads and thin Pitcher exhibit The Long View. wooden fences in the foreground. Three tiny clouds linger like grace notes at the top of the view has somehow been enigmatically distilled farthermost mountain and focus the movement for our senses in a way that is accurate, evocative, of the entire work. and emotional. This is one of those fantastic From a distance, “S-Tubes” depicts the paintings that undermine central composition, underside of waves as only a surfer would know drawing your eyes to the corners, plunging you them, but on closer inspection, the brushstrokes back into the center and then out again like that land and lift are like dashes and dots in a some kind of visual trampoline. Morse code of the artist’s own making. From Every aspect of the painting is worth the paintings of Brom’s fishtail surfboards extensive examination. From the disappearing shadowed by the sunset, stuck in mounds hills to the botanically accurate flower buds of purple sand, to the depictions of deserted that seem dappled like Christmas lights across volleyball nets at Eastside Beach with their the foreground to the water of the marsh overlapping rectangular fields invoking tertiary that binds the three canvases together, softly geometric shapes, all these smaller pieces reflecting some colors we can’t even find in engage the viewer in thoughts of naturalistic the surroundings, “Spring,” with its subtle perceptions that have been transformed by the monumental feel, is a stake in the ground artistic process to reveal everyday abstractions for Pitcher’s future work, a clarion call that measures his ambition, depth, and vibrancy. and a liminal sense of time. “Point Conception” is the last canvas in the The exhibition title The Long View is replete with a waterfall of meanings, and pretty much exhibition, and it’s pictured from an oblique every one resonates. Pitcher’s new painting hilltop perspective at a pinnacle of light that studio rests precariously on a bluff overlooking surely cannot last. Fuchsia splashes against the Pacific next to the Coal Oil Point Reserve. luminous green grass as we see where the waves Sometimes a new studio is a catalyst for an artist, make their best surf breaks. Watch the waves in and this space has obviously opened up new Pitcher’s landscapes; they are sure to be where vistas. But the title of the show reaches its true the really good surfing can be found. The light and color and rhythm of these apotheosis in the masterwork and centerpiece handsomely executed compositions move of the exhibition, simply titled “Spring.” Devereux Slough in Goleta is the subject, and Pitcher further into the various qualities of the it’s a landscape that area insiders know is filled paint itself as he walks a tightrope between repwith history and meaning, and teeming with life. resentation and abstraction. Like Diebenkorn, This 17-foot painting spans three canvases and Pitcher has developed a discourse in painting encompasses a breadth of vision impossible for that indicates that his long view is only beginthe human eye to hold in the actual location. The ning.
Perfect Day
Art by: James Paul Lambert, Julie Young, Liv Zutphen
Reception: Friday Nov. 22, 5-8 pm Panel Discussion: 6:30 pm Exhibit Runs Nov. 16 thru Dec. 29 Join us for a fun and informative evening of art featuring 3 contemporary artists. Don’t miss the Panel Discussion with the artists, moderated by Tara Patrick at 6:30.
INTERIORS & ART GALLERY Santa BarBara: 132 SANTA BARBARA STReeT OPEn 6 DaYS: MoN ThRu SAT 10 To 6 AND SuN 11 To 5. CLOSED WED www.MichAelkATe.coM NovEmbEr 21, 2013
THE INDEPENDENT
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