|
Lisbeth
Firmin November 13 - December 4, 2002
A
monoprint resists definition. Its essence is best conveyed by example.
Lisbeth Firmin enthusiastically seeks the fertile, messy ground of the monoprint precisely because it declares itself outside neat categories. For her, the technique's flexibility serves not only as as a procedural step in her effort to achieve a graphic approximation of reality, but in a broader sense as a way to, as she puts it, "...ride the edge between abstraction and realism". Apparently her discomfort with definition runs deep. Like the work of John Sloan and Edward Hopper, artists with whom she feels a strong affinity, Lisbeth Firmin's work pursues no categorical firmness but instead seeks a deft balance between the subject and the pictorial structure that holds it together. To accomplish this she has devised a personal approach to the monoprint that is, no surprise here, difficult to define though meticulously outlined in her own recipe: I
use etching inks and oil paints. I roll up the plate (a piece of
thick Plexiglas, cut to size) with a roller first, usually using
black to start. I then do what they call 'reductive' monoprinting,
which means that I wipe away the plate, using starched cheesecloth,
rags and paper towels. Once I get the image laid out into basic
darks and lights, I go back in with some color, using both etching
inks and oil paints. With small rollers and several sizes of brushes
I draw and refine the image. The Plexiglas plate is great because
it is transparent and you can hold it up to check on the drawing
and composition while you're working. Once the plate is finished,
it is printed on an etching press, using a variety of printmaking
paper. There is of course only one impression per drawing. Some
artists do pull another impression from the plate, but the image
produced is too ghost-like for me. Both her prints and final paintings (there are two small canvases in the exhibit) reveal a compositional skill remarkable for someone working with such transient subject matter. These images concentrate on New York pedestrians, a troupe of particularly rapid moving performers whose relationship to their environment is almost symbiotic. Unlike Hopper, whose sense of the urban pace seems more in tune with the stage, Firmin's sensibility is closer to the street photographer or documentary filmmaker - simultaneously comprehensive and fleeting. It is a quality that nourishes a substantial painterly spirit. Peter
Malone
Exhibition
Checklist Waiting for the Light, Talking on the Phone ... image Walking Downtown, Last Summer Couple Walking, 7th Avenue South Walking
Downtown, Summer Afternoon Couple
with Child, West Village Young Man, Chinatown On the Phone, Braodway Walking in the Rain, Lower East Side Upper East Side, Late Afternoon Going to Work Waiting for the Morning Train Grand Street I Grand Street II Walking Downtown, Last Summer Young Man Strolling Coming from the Park Central Park, Late Afternoon Upper East Side, Early Morning Waiting by the Pond Man Walking, Early Morning Sun East Side Park, Morning Young Mother with Child Young Girl Walking, Late Afternoon After Work, Downtown Reading the Headlines, Midtown Old Woman Going off to Draw
|
