.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Pat Steir imbibes her paintings with a quiet power, a sensuality of movement and a drama of form. With its poetic and evocative title, Sea of Japan provides the viewer with an immediate and sensory experience in which one feels the spray of the briny ocean, hears the resounding crash of the waves and sees the white-capped tops of the infinite black sea. Through her unique technique of splashing and dripping paint, Steir releases her ego from the physical act of painting and permits a pure and organic exploration of line and form: “From an aesthetic, philosophical or spiritual point of view, the process is like unleashing something, allowing the paintings to make themselves. You just happen to be the instigator, the inventor” (A. Waldman, “Pat Steir,” BOMB 83, Spring 2003, p. 31).
Sea of Japan is covered by a wash of white, dripping paint that flows down the surface of the canvas much like a streaming waterfall cascades down a ravine. A group of wild black marks occupy the center of the painting moving with a tumultuous ferocity in every direction. Along the right side, a white vertical splash of pigment erupts and scatters droplets in a frothy arc. From the bottom left side, skeins of barnacle white radiate forth in horizontal bands creating an unstable sway suggestive of the tide’s ebb and flow. The painting is punctuated by a central dash of red, which pulsates against the blacks, grays and blue-tinted whites of the composition further emphasizing the tempestuous energy of the sea and the underlying threat of omnipotent nature.
Steir is best known for her series of abstract waterfall paintings dating from the late 1980s. She consciously removes herself from the expressionist act of creation by permitting the paint to react to the constraints of gravity and the environment. Nature and its elemental forces are not only the subject matter of her work, but they also become active participants in her process of painting. She relies on the philosophy of Taoism to inform her practice by simultaneously creating and not-creating. Steir’s specific dripping and splashing techniques are immensely influenced by Chinese Yi-pin or “ink-splashing” painting from the 8th and 9th century. Unlike the machismo and virility of Pollock’s gesture, Steir’s brushwork is singularly sensitive, elegant and confident. Her constant pursuit of the very essence of painting led her to establish fruitful relationship with mentors John Cage and Agnes Martin.
As art historian Thomas McEvilley describes, Steir paints brilliant compositions “that are ravishing extensions of the tradition of American painting, imbued with the elegance of Ad Reinhardt and the dark spirituality of Pollock, the vigorous experimental dynamism of the abstract-sublime thread of the American tradition” (T. McEvilley, Pat Steir, New York, 1995, p.68). Steir is able to capture the essence of motion, the beauty of the natural world and the impressions of the senses.
Sea of Japan is covered by a wash of white, dripping paint that flows down the surface of the canvas much like a streaming waterfall cascades down a ravine. A group of wild black marks occupy the center of the painting moving with a tumultuous ferocity in every direction. Along the right side, a white vertical splash of pigment erupts and scatters droplets in a frothy arc. From the bottom left side, skeins of barnacle white radiate forth in horizontal bands creating an unstable sway suggestive of the tide’s ebb and flow. The painting is punctuated by a central dash of red, which pulsates against the blacks, grays and blue-tinted whites of the composition further emphasizing the tempestuous energy of the sea and the underlying threat of omnipotent nature.
Steir is best known for her series of abstract waterfall paintings dating from the late 1980s. She consciously removes herself from the expressionist act of creation by permitting the paint to react to the constraints of gravity and the environment. Nature and its elemental forces are not only the subject matter of her work, but they also become active participants in her process of painting. She relies on the philosophy of Taoism to inform her practice by simultaneously creating and not-creating. Steir’s specific dripping and splashing techniques are immensely influenced by Chinese Yi-pin or “ink-splashing” painting from the 8th and 9th century. Unlike the machismo and virility of Pollock’s gesture, Steir’s brushwork is singularly sensitive, elegant and confident. Her constant pursuit of the very essence of painting led her to establish fruitful relationship with mentors John Cage and Agnes Martin.
As art historian Thomas McEvilley describes, Steir paints brilliant compositions “that are ravishing extensions of the tradition of American painting, imbued with the elegance of Ad Reinhardt and the dark spirituality of Pollock, the vigorous experimental dynamism of the abstract-sublime thread of the American tradition” (T. McEvilley, Pat Steir, New York, 1995, p.68). Steir is able to capture the essence of motion, the beauty of the natural world and the impressions of the senses.