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拍品專文
In a more disciplined and contemplative move, Jack Tworkov, made geometry play a more active role in his painting. Evolving from the death knell of Abstraction Expressionism, of which he was a First-Generation practitioner, Tworkov began exploring the contrasts between “the measured and the random activity” in his paintings.(1) Numbered systems and mathematic divisions became the framework wherein Tworkov’s gesture would be guided and restrained. “The sense of tension, precipitated by contradiction,” wrote Douglas Crimp, “is a continuation of the conflict between the spontaneity and restraint which has always been integral to Tworkov’s art.”(2)
The seven paintings that make up the Crossfield Series (1968-1970) celebrate Tworkov’s tenuous balance between surface and depth, calligraphy and geometry, sensations of spontaneity and freedom. Each painting in the series is masterfully composed beginning with a horizontal structure and selection of a ground color to determine the overall preferred light value and then the subsequent dense layering of varying hues—light over dark and dark over light creating the illusion of shadow. Paintings in the series vary from monochromes of pink, orange, mauve, and violet.
The title, Crossfield, suggests a current or directional flow, like the patterns of particles drifting or the mass of magnetic conductions. It suggests the movement against or across a prevailing ground.
The series achieved Tworkov’s aim:
“What I wanted was a simple structure dependent on drawing as a base on which the brushing, spontaneous and pulsating, gave a beat to the painting somewhat analogous to the beat in music.”(3)
– Jason Andrew, Manager/Curator of the Estate of Jack Tworkov
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(1) Tworkov, Jack in Extreme of the Middle: Writings of Jack Tworkov, ed. Mira Schor (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), p. 255.
(2) Crimp, Douglas. "Quartered and Drawn." ARTnews 70 (March 1971), p. 48.
(3) Tworkov, Jack. "On My Outlook as a Painter: A Memoir." Leonardo, International Journal of the Contemporary Artist Vol. 7, No. 2 (Spring 1974), p. 116.
The seven paintings that make up the Crossfield Series (1968-1970) celebrate Tworkov’s tenuous balance between surface and depth, calligraphy and geometry, sensations of spontaneity and freedom. Each painting in the series is masterfully composed beginning with a horizontal structure and selection of a ground color to determine the overall preferred light value and then the subsequent dense layering of varying hues—light over dark and dark over light creating the illusion of shadow. Paintings in the series vary from monochromes of pink, orange, mauve, and violet.
The title, Crossfield, suggests a current or directional flow, like the patterns of particles drifting or the mass of magnetic conductions. It suggests the movement against or across a prevailing ground.
The series achieved Tworkov’s aim:
“What I wanted was a simple structure dependent on drawing as a base on which the brushing, spontaneous and pulsating, gave a beat to the painting somewhat analogous to the beat in music.”(3)
– Jason Andrew, Manager/Curator of the Estate of Jack Tworkov
_____
(1) Tworkov, Jack in Extreme of the Middle: Writings of Jack Tworkov, ed. Mira Schor (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), p. 255.
(2) Crimp, Douglas. "Quartered and Drawn." ARTnews 70 (March 1971), p. 48.
(3) Tworkov, Jack. "On My Outlook as a Painter: A Memoir." Leonardo, International Journal of the Contemporary Artist Vol. 7, No. 2 (Spring 1974), p. 116.