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PETER
PLAGENS
New Works on Paper
September 8 - October 4, 2001
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| Peter Plagens's
elegant, almost lyrical new paintings on paper combine elements which have,
somewhat separately, been over the years characteristic of his large abstract
canvases and very small collages. From the large paintings he's brought
his awkward/graceful drawing configurations and highly nuanced range of
subtly chromated grays. |
Peter Plagens,
Untitled (148-00), 2000,
mixed media on paper, 24 x 18 inches |
Peter Plagens,
Untitled (154-00), 2000,
mixed media on paper, 24 x 18 inches |
And from the
collages, he's brought brisk, bright areas of unadulterated color-rectangles
in these latest paintings on paper. What remains constant, even exaggerated,
however, is Plagens's esthetic high-wire act of trying to combine the uncombinable:
slightly surreal, biomorphic linear forms with hard-edge rectangles; straight-out-of-the-jar
colors with recombinant neutrals; and a feeling of intimacy with graphic
punch. |
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Now, jarring
juxtaposition of disparate elements is pretty much the order of the day
in contemporary paintings. But what makes Plagens's work different is
that the purpose of his admixtures is not just conspicuous garishness.
And he has no intent whatsoever of "referencing"
the vagaries of popular culture. Plagens is an abstract painter who means
to keep that art-making mode vital and viable, while at the same time
simply expressing himself.
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Peter Plagens,
Untitled (143-00), 2000,
mixed media on paper, 24 x 18 inches |
Peter Plagens,
Untitled (153-00), 2000,
mixed media on paper, 24 x 18 inches |
"Of course,"
Plagens says, "expressing myself' is not quite that simple. Many people
know that I lead a double life as an artist and a critic, and they may think
there's some sort of critique of contemporary art in my work. There's not,
but there is an acknowledgement of the dualism in my life of painting and
writing, of colors and words, of paint-handling and rhetoric." |
| That stuff
is in this new work, but to go on at length about it-in words-is to try
falsely to make these paintings on paper seem extra-profound. If these paintings
are profound (and I certainly hope there's some profundity in them), it
has to start with how they look, and everything else has to follow from
that." |
Peter Plagens,
Untitled (144-00), 2000,
mixed media on paper, 24 x 18 inches |
Peter Plagens,
Untitled (145-00), 2000,
mixed media on paper, 24 x 18 inches |
Peter Plagens
was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1941.
He received a B.F.A. degree from the University of Southern California in
1962 and an M.F.A. from Syracuse University in 1964.
He has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in Painting and two
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in Painting. |
| Plagen's work
has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture
Garden, Washington, D.C.; Akron Art Museum, Ohio; and, in 2000, the Las
Vegas Art Museum, Nevada. His paintings are in the public collections of,
among others, Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York; The Baltimore Museum
of Art, Maryland; Denver Art Museum, Colorado; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture
Garden; Museum of Contemporary Art; San Diego, California; Museum of Fine
Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico. |
Peter Plagens,
Untitled (146-00), 2000,
mixed media on paper, 24 x 18 inches |
Peter Plagens,
Untitled (138-00), 2000,
mixed media on paper, 24 x 18 inches |
Plagens is
also the author of three books: "Sunshine Muse: Modern Art on the
West Coast, 1945-70"
(University of California Press, 2000); "Moonlight Blues: An Artist's
Art Criticism" (UMI Research Press, 1986); and a novel, "Time
for Robo" (Black Heron Press, 1999).
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Peter Plagens
lives and works in New York.
For additional information and/or photographs,
please call 212-966-6676.
Peter Plagens Biography
More on Peter Plagens |
Peter Plagens,
Untitled (142-00), 2000,
mixed media on paper, 24 x 18 inches |
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