Jack Wolfe: Beyond the Known

EXTREME ECLECTICISM B y R o b e r t C oz zo lin o Jack Wolfe approached the act of painting with humility and curiosity. Over the arc of his long career he followed an intuition that guided him to numerous shifts in subject matter and process. In the late 1950s he made ferociously composed, emotionally volatile Crucifixion paintings. During the early days of the Civil Rights movement and American War in Vietnam, he made politically assertive paintings protesting the human rights abuses he felt were happening on U.S. soil and overseas. Wolfe’s calmly composed and gorgeously realized portraits of the 1970s and 1980s seem to have come from his close emotional bond with sitters. His monumental portraits of the courageous leaders of the American Indian Movement (AIM), reveal the degree to which activism mattered to him and how he respected those who put their lives on the line for change.

Wolfe’s abstract paintings, which he made throughout his life, do not form a through line amidst these shifts so much as they engage in a conversation with his other work. As he made a wide range of abstractions Wolfe learned lessons that he applied to political and existentialist subject matter. Meaningful ways of deploying pattern and geometry affected the austerity of portraits. The scale and objecthood of his shaped canvases revealed powerful ways to compose homages to AIM leaders. Wolfe understood the value of pushing into new creative territory because of this relational practice. It was how he grew as an artist – accepting some discomfort and productively working through it. “You’re not anywhere unless