RICHARD ANUSZKIEWICZNEW WORK 2003 – 2013

525 West 26th StreetNew York NY 10001

212.695.0164www.lorettahoward.com

RICHARD ANUSZKIEWICZ

March 7 – April 20, 2013

NEW WORK 2003 – 2013

The present exhibition features paintings made by American master Richard Anuszkiewicz during the past ten years. Over the course of a career that has spanned six decades, Anuszkiewicz has

explored in his paintings and sculptures our shared visual responses to perceptual phenomena. These include color, line, and spatial relationships. He has made works that produce optical effects ranging from powerful to subtle, ones that lead us to reexamine how we see and thus how we understand the world around us.

Anuszkiewicz’s works are informed by the science of optics but not dominated by it. The choices he makes in his works are most often intuitive, and he recognizes that the cutting-edge scientific exploration is also based on intuition. Anuszkiewicz’s paintings ask questions rather than provide easy answers. Within their geomet-ric structures, the artist conjures exciting tensions between flatness and spatial illusion, surprising color shifts that depend on surrounding hues, and unexpected effects of simultaneous transparency and opacity.

Yet, as a whole Anuszkiewicz’s paintings are classical in spirit; they have a commanding pres-ence and an inherent grandeur. Their visual intensity generates emotional responses, but the emotions are disciplined and restrained. In the classical mode, Anuszkiewicz does not shy away from the concept of beauty. He has commented on his desire to “create a kind of distilled beauty,” saying, “To me beauty is a very positive word.” Also, in the classical vein, Anuszkiewicz’s visual concerns are ultimately philosophical in nature. They impart a deep humanist belief in the connectedness of our experiences and a faith in creative exploration.

Anuszkiewicz’s art first came to wide public attention in the context of the Op Art movement of the 1960s. Along with Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley, he has been acknowledged as a founder of the movement. However, Anuszkiewicz’s visual investigations preceded the Op Art movement by a number of years, and the variety and inventive range of his work over the subsequent decades has far outdistanced it. In actuality, Anuszkiewicz’s intellectual roots grow from the heroic first generation of modern artists that developed in the years around World War I. These artists include Piet Mondrian, Kazimir Malevich, Constantin Brancusi, Le Corbusier and the artists associated with the Bauhaus. Anuszkiewicz’s di-rect link to these artists is through Josef Albers, one of the founding members of the Bauhaus, with whom Anuszkiewicz studied at Yale University from 1953 to 1955.

Albers devoted much of his art to the study of color relationships. While he is often viewed as a strict disciplinarian who taught only the structural analysis of color and form, Albers actually personalized col-ors and ascribed such characteristics as “serene, mighty and melancholic” to them. Similarly, Anuszkiewicz relies on feelings as well as analysis in his works. Anuszkiewicz embraces the connections between scien-tific and poetic knowledge.

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Gestalt psychology which was made popular in America during the 1950s and 1960s by the writings of Rudolf Arnheim and James J. Gibson is an enduring inspiration for Anuszkiewicz. (Anuszkiewicz’s master’s thesis at Yale, one of his most important written documents, is an analysis of old master and modern draw-ings from a Gestalt viewpoint.) Gestalt psychology posits that seeing and thinking are not separate activities as they were traditionally considered to be; rather, they are fully integrated. Seeing actively involves specu-lation, correction, selection, contradiction, and analysis. As such, Gestalt psychology continually informs the visual questions asked by Anuszkiewicz’s work.

Anuszkiewicz’s Mardi Gras (2013) features the central configuration of squares within a square-shaped canvas that lends the artist’s work a classical harmony. Yet, within the square format, every element pro-

vides the illusion of motion and change. The painting consists of triple bands of color that are divided by thin red stripes. Because the triple bands alternate between hot and cool hues, they appear in sequence to advance and recede. In addition, within each of the triple bands, the proximity of its color area to the adjoining band gives the illusion that the colors differ when in fact they are identical. As in many of Anuszkiewicz’s best works, Mardi Gras embodies simultaneously certainty and complex visual speculation.

Dual Blue (2001-11) relies on simplicity and the effect of large areas of saturated col-or as opposed to complicated permutations. The vertical orientation of its two blue bars suggests Anuszkiewicz’s long-held architectural interests. The blue bars may be read simultaneously as piers and portals into space. One bar is framed by a pur-

ple perimeter and the other by green. The perimeters add to the spatial illusion making the two blue areas appear to be slightly different hues, when in reality they are identical. One seems to open space like a portal, and the other presses to the surface like an architectural beam. These works encourage us creative-ly to see and think.

Richard Anuszkiewicz’s art expresses his own deeply held view of the mod-ern age. He remains an optimist who believes that logical investigation and artistic invention can lead to a better understanding of the human condition.

Robert S. MattisonMarshall R. Metzgar Professor of Art History

Lafayette College

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Deep Red Portals, 2003Acrylic on Masonite15 x 11 inches

Gray Portals, 2003Acrylic on Masonite15 x 11 inches

Green Portals, 2003Acrylic on Masonite15 x 11 inches

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Silver Portals, 2003Acrylic on Masonite

15 x 11 inches

Orange Portals, 2003Acrylic on Masonite

15 x 11 inches

Golden Portals , 2003Acrylic on Masonite

15 x 11 inches

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Transcolor – Blue on Yellow, 2012Acrylic on wood panel30 x 30 inches

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Dual Blue, 2012Acrylic on panel36 x 24 inches

Dual Yellow, 2011Acrylic on panel36 x 24 inches

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Summer Portals, 2012Acrylic on canvas

60 x 72 inches

Electric Green and Blue, 2012Acrylic on canvas72 x 96 inches

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Summer Night, 2012Acrylic on canvas72 x 96 inches

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Mardi Gras, 2013Acrylic on canvas84 x 84 inches

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Twin Towers, 2001–2011Acrylic on canvas108 x 66 inches

Twin Towers II, 2011Acrylic on canvas

108 x 66 inches

Four on Four, 2013Acrylic on canvas60 x 60 inches

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This catalogue published on the occasion of the exhibition

Richard AnuszkiewiczNew Work 2003 – 2013March 7 – April 20, 2013

Loretta Howard Gallery525 West 26th StreetNew York NY 10001212.695.0164www.lorettahoward.com

ISBN: ISBN: 978-0-9842804-6-9

All artworks © Richard Anuszkiewicz

Portraits of the artist by Adam Anuszkiewicz

Photography by Thomas Müeller

cover: Mardi Gras (detail), 2013, Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60 inches

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