The Paintings of David Trowbridge By M. Austin Haight
By 1975 the prägnanz of David Trowbridge’s work became much more aligned with the typification of any standard painting: brush applied paint on canvas. Gone away were the past illusions of no support via the plexiglass and the theatre lights which added elements of the non-physical to his work. In Robert Morris’ 1966 Artforum essay “Notes on Sculpture 1-3”, he speaks of an artwork’s “parts…bound together in such a way that they create a maximum resistance to perceptual separation.” and in Trowbridge’s ‘75 show he does just that, taking the once separated illusions of the physical and nonphysical and binding them together in a more historically succinct fashion. As seen in his all white paintings, where the whole form is a physicality of paint on canvas, there are the similarities to his other works which tie them to Trowbridge’s hand as it is much more evident than any of his previous works. The white paint is much more fast and loose compared to the meticulousness in prior airbrushed works (see catalog for Trowbridge’s 1971 Cirrus Solo Show). But as this group of paintings, named after some of Trowbridge’s favorite Jazz musicians, plays fast and loose just like the music he was
probably listening to at the time of their creation, there still is a formal methodology to these works and a technical control similar to those musicians as well. Much like the way his previous grid works could be read as musical compositions, as referred to by critic Elena Karina Canavier, these all white paintings are produced with the flurried control and essence of Jazz music. Trowbridge uses the brush to play with the viewers’ eyes while they attempt to see if each part of the whole is a replica of one another. This similarity evokes Trowbridge’s sense of control, which still lingers in his work, never parting from his earlier days. And this control is expounded upon in this series of movement to the point of all the chaotic brush strokes only placating the grid with their sameness, yet all the while still emitting subtle differences. And concerning the resurfacing of other references,hismovementbringsback the flowing structures of his previous series which was named after native trees of Hawaii, where the artist once lived. Those pieces mimicked the same shapes and textures he once airbrushed, which is interesting to note, since wood and the painterly movement located in nature would be used by Trowbridge in his later works of canvas and wood.