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PETER PLAGENS
Peter Plagens,
acrylic on canvas,
How much urine can you get from a Dead Coyote?,
84 x 144, 2005
Peter Plagens, Riverside and A Walk in the Deep
Woods, acrylic on canvas, 80 x 66 inches, 2005
Peter Plagens, Reception in the Tower,
acrylic on canvas, 80 x 66 inches, 2005
Peter Plagens, Flying Down to Peedro II,
acrylic on canvas, 80 x 66 inches, 2005
Peter Plagens, Man with a Gun,
acrylic on canvas, 47 x 42 inches, 2005
The new paintings, however, explore new territories of shape, color, paint-handling, and drawing that continue to make the artist one of the most compelling abstract painters working today. All of the paintings in this exhibition were completed in new studios built by Plagens and his wife, the painter Laurie Fendrich, in Callicoon Center, New York.
Peter Plagens, Lost Novel: Journey into Fear,
acrylic on canvas, 66 x 58 inches, 2005
Peter Plagens, Lavande, Merci,
acrylic on canvas, 66 x 60 inches, 2005
Peter Plagens, Paz used to stay at Tom Wicker's
House, acrylic on canvas, 56 x 48 inches, 2005
Peter Plagens, Untitled (for Nicholas Tremulus),
acrylic on canvas, 56 x 48 inches, 2005
"Peter Plagens: An Introspective," at the Fisher Gallery of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. It was accompanied by a catalogue, with an essay on the artist's work by critic Dave Hickey. The show also traveled to Columbia College, Chicago and The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio.
Excerpted from reviews for that show are the following quotes:
David Pagel writing in the Los Angeles Times, said,
"Although Plagens [who was Senior Writer on art at Newsweek from 1989 until his retirement in 2003] is perceived as a critic who happens to paint, he thinks of himself as a painter who happens to write art criticism. The exhibition bears this out. These wonderfully ad hoc compositions demand to be taken on their own terms, which are peculiar and rigorous, and may seem perverse to viewers who like their art simple. For Plagens, complexity is never an end in itself, but it makes for paintings that sustain your interest for far longer than can be reasonably explained."
Alan Artner, Art Critic for the Chicago Tribune, wrote:
"Here is work that looks like no one else's and keeps on doing so as it changes according to nothing but the inner necessity of the artist. What's more, the work grows from a large world view, not a narrow theoretical position or conceptual program. For nearly 30 years, then, the pieces continue to sustain a high level of visual interest, never becoming merely food for thought. It's an achievement often overlooked today, but even the smallest works on paper-collages that bring in patches of the verifiable world--here succeed at the best sort of provocation, one that requires no words to communicate to viewers."
Peter Plagens, The Painter Who Knew Better II,
acrylic on canvas, 56 x 48 inches, 2005
Peter Plagens, Max Lies to Roy,
acrylic on canvas, 30 x 26 inches, 2005
Peter Plagens, As Pretentious As I Want to Be,
acrylic on canvas, 30 x 26 inches, 2005
Peter Plagens, Wire to the World,
acrylic on canvas, 30 x 26 inches, 2005
Peter Plagens' work has been shown in solo exhibitions at Akron Art Museum, Ohio; Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles; The Gallery, Fine Arts Hall, Columbus State University, Georgia; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. and Las Vegas Art Museum, Nevada. The artist's work has also been shown at the Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock; The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio; Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio; Cooper-Hewitt Museum, Smithosnian Institution, New York; Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, Massachusetts; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia; Institute of Contemporary Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, California; Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla, California; National Collection of the Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; and Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio; among others.
Peter Plagens, Lost Novel II: After Long Silence,
acrylic on canvas, 30 x 22 inches, 2005
Peter Plagens, Lost Novel III: The Damned Don't Cry,
acrylic on canvas, 30 x 22 inches, 2005
Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York;
The Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland;
The Denver Art Museum, Colorado;
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden;
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla, California;
Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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).
Peter Plagens lives and works in New York City and Callicoon Center.
Peter Plagens, Cheap Mysteries: Night Train to Paris,
acrylic on canvas, 26 x 24 inches, 2005
Peter Plagens, Cheap Mysteries II: Secrets Can't Be Kept,
acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 inches, 2005
Peter Plagens, Cheap Mysteries III: Death of a Swagman, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 22 inches, 2005
Peter Plagens, Cheap Mysteries IV: Now or Never,
acrylic on canvas, 18 x 20 inches, 2005
