Gallery Lounge artiste go out on a limb
Celia Fox
Capital Times Staff
Our distant ancestors left little behind
for us in the way of a legacy outside our
genes. Yet, we know the length of their
fingers and the width of their palms. We
can measure ouselves against the ghosts
because so many took up a handful of
pigment and pressed it into the pores of
stone.
Civilization has not lessened artists’
fascination with hands. Michaelangelo
depicted the first man fingertip to fingertip
with his creator. Disembodied hands
appear as symbols in the work of Miro,
Clemente and others.
Through Jan. 31, the Gallery Lounge
plays host to "Dan Burns and Milt
Friedly: Mixed Media," an exhibit that
combines a broad range of materials and
style, held together by the imagery of
hands, as well as other human parts.
Bums' "Spirit" acrylics have an open
hand as their focal point. In "Spirit of
Death” the hand descends from the top of
the canvas. It does not grasp, but hangs
limply, impaled on what could be a.thorn
tree. Because Bums used raw canvas, the
earth-toned acrylic stains bleed outward and
downward, blurring outlines, creating a
misty effect.
"Spirit of Life" reverses the
arrangement but retains the vertical
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balance and muted colors. The hand rises
from the bottom of the canvas, sprouting
a tree-like shape. The static, frozen sense
inhabiting "Spririt of Death" is gone. The
viewer almost feels that tomorrow that
hand and tree may have grown beyond the
canvas, spreading up the wall.
"Resurrected Spirit" is the only fully
painted canvas of the three. With less
contrast between background and figures
than the other two, this painting seems
.flatter and less ethereal. The hand reaches
up, tossing a handful of feathers or leaves
into the air. Or perhaps the hand is
extended to catch them.
"Apparition” is a bridge between the
two styles that Bums uses in the works
displayed. Executed with loose brushwork
in vivid colors, it seems at first glance to
be a complete departure from the "Spirit"
series. But then the viewer sees the
ghostly arms reaching out of the central
mass, twining and overlapping.
The thick impasto used in "Apparition"
ties it to other Bums' paintings: "Tragedy
of the American Male," "Hero," "Cry in
the Dessert" and "Benediction."
All four have a frontal human figure as
focal point as well. "Tragedy” mixes
organic and geometric shapes; the dark
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Art Review
curves of the human body are imprisoned
and compressed within hard-edged shards of
brighter colors. The figure is almost
faceless: only a mouth open in a scream
and the hint of a blindfold are discemable.
"Benediction" disturbs us with an armless
torso, how can we feel blessed if no hands
bestow the blessing?
Milton Friedly's "Arms Arrangement,
A, B, C" does nothing to relieve the
viewer's unease.
Here, in realistically modeled ceramic,
is the conventual mechanism of blessing,
devoid of grace. Arms and hands are
reduced to isolated components, spatial
relationships explored as a formal exercise.
From across the lounge "Radial Ears"
brings to mind an Indian mandela made
out of the interlacing knots of Celtic
metalwork. A closer view proves its
reltionship to "Arms Arrangement." A
dark green-blue glaze gives the individual
ears a uniformity that eases the viewer
Penn State Harrisburg's 1992 Heritage Series
Jan. 27—Keith Brintzenhoff, "Pennsylvania Deitsch Music and Stories,"
Gallery Lounge, 12:05 p.m.-l p.m.
March 28-Irish Centre Dancers, Student Center, Capital Union
Building, 8 p.m.
Apr. 8-Susan Leviton and Joseph Mayanja, "Holocaust Perspectives,"
Gallery Lounge, noon-1:30 p.m.
January 20, PSH NEWS/5
into contemplation of basic structure.
Friedly's pieces, "Anxiety," "Earth
peace” and "Out West" share a common
shape: a more or less flat ceramic disc
that ripples and buckles, collapses and
bulges like a frozen ocean or a turtle shell
or maybe fan coral. His variations include
a swirl of Pollock-like dribbles and the sly
humor of gold foil stars.
His precise lines on "Jacob" and "his
Grace" seem dauntingly perfect to those of
us with less skilled hands. While carefully
distilled and technically exact, the images
are still abstract enough to promote
contemplation in the viewer.
Burns and Friedly share little in the
way of style, media, use of space, color or
rhythm, yet they live in the same
universe. It is strewn with human
fragments, arms and hands that have
nothing to hold on to. Jacob looks up the
ladder into heaven, but there are no angels
to see.
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