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Lowell Fox. A.O.C.A. February 25, 2008
An appreciation by Sandra Gibson
The Shock of the Still
I maintain that any appraisal of the
work of Lowell Fox would support the view that he places his silence at its
heart. Critics have written about the musicality of the paintings and this is
certainly present, both in actual portrayals of musical instruments and in the
rhythmic joy of dynamic paintings such as Jazz Riff Wow! - a piece where
guitars and strings and staves zing in perpetual motion or the Kandinskyesque
Big Music. Yet I keep returning to the essential stillness that permeates
the majority of the work.
Take Cenote Contemplation, whose title sets the mood for this study in tranquil seclusion; the cool greens and blues and indigos of the pool at the heart of the composition are held immobile within chalky white rocks. Further investigation reveals a figure so much part of the landscape as to be almost indistinguishable from it. Yet this figure is where the eye is at rest and is echoed larger in the pale blues of the pool. The viewer in turn contemplates the contemplative figure and the visual echo which is vaguely Buddha-shaped [but we won’t push it too far!] The painting addresses the balance between surface and depth; between light and dark. What a masterly use of light we have in the vertical in line with the figure and there is no area whiter than the light on the seated figure.
Cenote Contemplation is a chanced upon, self-contained scene and the viewer instinctively refrains from throwing any impertinent pebble of presence.
Similarly balanced in silence is January Beach Again the figurative element is minimised and in this case more distant though that is where the eye rests. But the main force of the painting exists in the tension between light and shadow – the shadow cast by a beach building but which resembles more an abstracted grand piano. And how the use of grey in this and the previous painting enhances the power of the lighter areas!
In the bridge painting the shape is echoed in the water and there is a nice interplay of complementary colour and rhythmic progression. Here is the hallmark motif of piano keyboard also powerfully present in the blue-biased atmospheric painting L’Escalier.
Sun Tea Desert Backyard is almost monochromatic such is the intensity of light, bleaching out the detail and provoking a visual shock in much the same way as an over-exposed photograph. Again the balance is between the dark areas and the light areas and here also is the skilful, enhancing use of greys. The touches of red paint, together with the silhouetted branches add a certain drama to an almost cinematic setting, where the encroaching shadow resembles a piano lid – especially if you are looking out for it! The stillness of this scene, in which the place is the subject - the character even - is further emphasised by the vertical patches of white paint marking the portals at the back of the picture.
I have written about this painting and about Cenote Contemplation because in my opinion nowhere in Lowell Fox’s oeuvre is the eloquently silent power of place so potent as in these. There are many other paintings of places of silence where figurative content is absent - though perhaps haunted by Ry Cooder! And here I would mention Dixie-Ethyl, El Paso Juarez or Dia De Los Muertos, El Paso or Jong’s Fruit Stand. There are other works where the figures are so closely integrated into the place that they are barely noticeable [Bait Shop, Tiki Hut] but none approach the statuesque quality I have been trying to describe.
Towards Abstraction.
Many of the paintings of Lowell Fox tend
towards abstraction but there are three whose intention is clearly that. Keys
I, Black and Tan and Noir I are powerful, monumental works
celebrating not only the triumph of paint on surface but also the piano. Keys
I and Black and Tan are displayed as part of a stage setting at a
musical event and also within a monochromatic room containing a piano to be
viewed as sculpture.
Where Keys I has a static, slightly brooding, waiting presence, predominantly black and white in form, Black and Tan has paint applied with greater vigour. There is more movement and the monochrome has been relieved by the enlivening effect of warm browns which evoke the mellowing process of time on white piano keys. As a pair, these paintings are exquisitely right together.
I’m not quite sure if Noir I
should be physically placed with these two but it is stylistically linked. The
texture of luxuriously applied black paint is tactile and exciting as is the
hint of red. It is not clear from observing on screen whether the texture causes
light reflection or whether the lines of light are painted on but the effect is
arresting as an invocation of strings and staves and keys and rhythm.
To continue my theme – such works of power have the potency to promote contemplative silence in the viewer in much the same way as icons in any culture do. I do not know where the silence resides in Lowell’s paintings but intuitively speaking I would say that it is right there on the pivotal point of balance.
And what an extraordinary and complementary experience it is to read Lowell Fox’s writings! Garrulous, innovative, eclectic, erudite, full of political, economic and cultural allusion, satirical, humorous, and self-deprecating - absolutely heaving and teaming with newly coined words and colloquial peculiarities. I am tempted to ask whether this is the bedrock of Lowell Fox’s silence. But that’s another story…
Sandra Gibson is a writer and reviewer, living in Cheshire,
England,contributing to
www.catalystmedia.org.uk
other reviews by Sandra Gibson include the works by
Niki de Saint Phalle, an exhibition at the Tate, Liverpool
you can contact her by
email
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