This week I visited the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The exhibition of Abstract Expressionists was most impressive because all works on display are from the MoMA collection. Sadly, perhaps because of this limitation, there are very few examples from the female counterparts of the ‘giants’ of Ab-Ex, Lee Krasner being the most prominently represented. History was not revised with this exhibition.
From there I continued on to the temporary exhibition, On Line, curated by Connie Butler Chief Curator of Drawings at MoMA, and Catherine de Zegher, former director of the Drawing Center, New York. The exhibition’s theme (Drawing through the Twentieth Century) is a terrific excuse to group a great quantity of artworks (about 300) that are said to push the boundaries of what is considered drawing or mark-making…
…Continuing with the medium of printmaking and relating to the theme of mark-making, I have chosen to introduce the work of Bartus Bartolomes (b. Venezuela) in this edition. I first showed Bartus at the Pinta Art Fair last November and his prints captivated the public, I think for their intriguing drawing style combined with text, often held withing a grid; referencing universal symbols, much like in paintings by Joaquin Torres-Garcia or the Pictographs of Adolph Gottlieb, or perhaps more akin to contemporary comics.
By Esperanza León
Solar Contemporary Gallery, New Hamptons, N.Y. USA.
February 4, 2011.
