David Simpson: Paintings, Past & Present

David Simpson: Paintings, Past & Present

Paintings, Past & Present

Click here for a virtual tour of the show

These days it can be easy to feel that the world is opaque. It rushes at us through the medium of our screens, washing over, leaving behind a residue of distress, discomfort; a sense that the world is impenetrable, lacking depth or dimension – and that we are somehow, inexorably locked out of it, skating on its edges. Apart rather than a part of.

Those familiar with the interference paintings of David Simpson know that his works are small worlds. The special interference pigment Simpson has mastered over decades includes microscopic particles coated in mica. By creating layer upon layer of these particles, layer upon layer of paint on canvas, Simpson opens up an internal realm within the seeming two dimensional space of the canvas – a space within which light is able to travel and act.

Bouncing from particle to particle – the light within the paint creates not only startling shifts of color, but also a sense of boundless depths, movement, and space. It does not take long, standing in front of one of these works, to find oneself falling into all that mysterious space. To feel as if here is a doorway into another world.

These paintings are also unabashedly, unapologetically beautiful.

Paintings, Past & Present brings together a collection of Simpson’s interference paintings completed over the past two decades. The eye and body are pulled first to the three massive paintings hung as a triptych at the southwest end of the gallery. At nine feet by just over 6 feet each – they tower over the viewer, creating a whole wall of elusive color. The three paintings: Lilac Icon (1999), Under the Rose (1999), and Ancient (2004) have never before been shown, and are among the largest pieces Simpson has ever exhibited. The three paintings of the triptych are purples.

Lilac Icon is a deep, bruised color that almost shifts subtly toward black, with Under the Rose moving ever so slightly lighter, and Ancient contrasting with its shifts from pale purple to copper.

Across the gallery from these three paintings is Latterday Battersea (1998), another large piece in a moody blue that shifts with hints of pink, gold, and ice. Simpson’s title provides a clue to the inspiration for the piece, Whistler’s Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge. There is a harmonious congruence between the pieces – the sense of a foggy lamp-lit evening – water reflecting diffused light.

If these giants offer doorways into other worlds, continuing through the gallery the smaller works (34 x 34 and 16 x 16) offer windows. From the deep, active blues of Sapphire and Blue Devil, to the inflected copper, pink, and lilac of Copper and Odd Fog. The smallest pieces sometimes offer the most startling shifts, such as Burgundy Shift, which transitions from a concentrated, flat burgundy to startling burnished copper.

Perhaps the title of the first triptych piece, Lilac Icon, is an appropriate hint toward approaching Simpson’s work.

With their metallic, almost gilt shimmers and vivid colors – these works often do feel like icons: glowing, meditative, reflective, moving the viewer toward spaciousness. The understanding to be found here is not of a particular religion, not doctrine, but vision.

To see one of Simpson’s interference paintings is to become engaged with it. To see it fully, the viewer must move, see how light and color shift across the painting. They must spend time – notice how changes in the quality or color of the light touch the work. These paintings are responsive to the world. The experience of them does not reside in the painting or in the viewer – it is created by the participation of painting, viewer, and world. All three are necessary.

They remind us that worlds are not inert – that they are interactive, that they bend and move as we bend and move.

They remind us that every shift of light has its effect, that every movement through space effects change.

-- Michaela Kahn PhD left: image courtesy of Jo Whaley

Small Window, 2017, acrylic on canvas on board (interference pigment), 16 x 16 inches

Rosanova, 2016, acrylic on canvas on board (interference pigment), 16 x 16 inches

The Thought A Penny Bought, 2018, acrylic on canvas on board (interference pigment), 16 x 16 inches

Rim Fire, 2017, acrylic on canvas on board (interference pigment), 16 x 16 inches

Burgundy Shift, 2018, acrylic on canvas on board (interference pigment), 16 x 16 inches

Lilac Icon, 1999, acrylic on canvas on board (interference pigment), 108 x 75 inches

Under the Rose, 1999, acrylic on canvas on board (interference pigment), 108 x 75 inches

Ancient, 2004, acrylic on canvas on board (interference pigment), 108 x 75 inches

Latterday Battersea, 1998, acrylic on canvas on board (interference pigment), 108 x 75 inches

Blue Devil, 2019, acrylic on canvas on board (interference pigment), 34 x 34 inches

Silver Linging, 2003, acrylic on canvas on board (interference pigment), 34 x 34 inches

Saphire, 2019, acrylic on canvas on board (interference pigment), 34 x 34 inches

Tattered Panzi’s #1, 2020, acrylic on board, 11.875 x 9 inches

Tattered Panzi’s #2, 2020, acrylic on board, 11.75 x 9 inches

Bitter Root, 2020, acrylic on board, 12 x 9 inches

Post Vanitas Orchids, 2020, acrylic on board, 11.875 x 9 inches

Copper, 2020, acrylic on canvas on board (interference pigment), 34 x 34 inches

Odd Fog, 2019, acrylic on canvas on board (interference pigment), 34 x 34 inches

May Day, 2019, acrylic on canvas on board (interference pigment), 34 x 34 inches

Small Window, 2017 acrylic on canvas over panel (interference pigment) 16 x 16 inches DS357 Click to inquire about this work

$7,200

Lilac Icon, 1999 acrylic on canvas (interference pigment) 108 x 75 in.

DS456 Click to inquire about this work

Rosanova, 2016 Acrylic on canvas on board (interference pigment) 16 x 16 in.

DS302 Click to inquire about this work

$7,200

Under the Rose, 1999 acrylic on canvas 108 x 75 in.

DS457 Click to inquire about this work

The Thought A Penny Bought, 2018 Acrylic on canvas on board (interference pigment) 16 x 16 in.

DS387 Click to inquire about this work

$7,200

Ancient, 2004 acrylic on canvas (interference pigment) 108 x 75 in.

DS455 Click to inquire about this work

Rim Fire, 2017 acrylic on canvas (interference pigment) 16 x 16 in.

DS374 Click to inquire about this work

$7,200

Latterday Battersea, 1998 acrylic on canvas (interference pigment) 108 x 75 in.

DS454 Click to inquire about this work

Burgundy Shift, 2018 Acrylic on canvas on board (interference pigment) 16 x 16 in.

DS386 Click to inquire about this work

$7,200

Blue Devil, 2019 acrylic on canvas over board 34 x 34 in.

DS475 Click to inquire about this work

$15,000

Silver Lining, 2003 acrylic on canvas over board 34 x 34 in.

DS480 Click to inquire about this work

$15,000

Post Vanitas Orchids, 2020 acrylic on board 11.875 x 9 inches DS459 Click to inquire about this work

$2,800

Saphire, 2019 acrylic on canvas over board (Interference pigment) 34 x 34 in.

DS478 Click to inquire about this work

$15,000

Copper, 2020 acrylic on canvas over board (Interference pigment) 34 x 34 in.

DS477 Click to inquire about this work

$15,000

Tattered Panzi’s #1, 2020 acrylic on board 11.875 x 9 inches DS464 Click to inquire about this work

$2,800

Odd Fog, 2019 acrylic on canvas over board (Interference pigment) 34 x 34 in.

DS479 Click to inquire about this work

$15,000

Tattered Panzi’s #2, 2020 acrylic on board 11.75 x 9 inches DS465 Click to inquire about this work

$2,800

May Day, 2019 acrylic on canvas over board (Interference pigment) 34 x 34 in.

DS479 Click to inquire about this work

$15,000

Bitter Root, 2020 acrylic on board 12 x 9 inches DS460 Click to inquire about this work

$2,800

Born: 1928 in Pasadena, CA Lives & works in Berkeley, CA Education: 1958 1956

MFA, San Francisco State College BFA, California School of Fine Arts

Selected Solo Exhibitions: 2020, 19, 18, 16 Charlotte Jackson FIne Art, Santa Fe, NM 2020, 18, 16, 11 Haines Gallery, San Francicso, CA 2016, 15 Geukens & De Vil COntemporary Art, Antwerp, Belgium 2013 University of Wyoming Art Museum, Laramie, WY 2012, 07, 05 Gallery SOnja Roesch, Houston, TX 2009 Modernism Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2000 Sonoma Museum of Visual Art, Santa Rosa, CA 1990 Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, NE 1978 The Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA 1967 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA 1964, 63, 61 Robert Elkon Gallery, New York, NY 1960 Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA 1959 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA Selected Group Exhibitions: 2014 Museo Fortuny, Venica, Italy 2010 Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA 2009 Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs, Long Island, NY 2007, 05 Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY 2005 Cicic Museum, Linden, Germany 2000 US Berkely Art Museum, Berkeley, VA

The Panza di Biumo Collection, Varese, Italy 1995 M.H. de Young Memorial Art Museum, San Francisco, CA 1986 Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of Nebraska - Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 1985 The Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA 1978 American Abstract Art Sincer 1945, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA (traveling) 1964 Post-Painterly Abstraction, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (traveling) 1963 Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

1963 cont.

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY

Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN 1962 Tornio Museum of Modern Art, Italy Fifty Calivornians, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY 1955 Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO

M.H. de Young Memorial Art Museum, San Francisco, CA Selected Collections: Albright Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA M.H. de Young Museum, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA La Jolla Museum of Art, La Jolla, CA John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chicago, Il Museum of Contemporary Art (MART), Roverato, Italy Museo di Arte Cantonale, Lugano, Switzerland Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Trento, Italy Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, DC Oakland Art Museum, Oakland, CA Panza Collection, Lugano, Switzerland Villa Menafoglio Litta Panza, Biumo Superiore, Varese, Italy Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY Reed College, Portland, OR San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA Seattle Museum of Art, Seattle, WA Shasta College, Redding, CA University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE

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