Untitled
2005
enamel on aluminum
45 X 47 inches
Untitled
2003
enamel on aluminum
45 X 30 inches
Untitled
2005
enamel on aluminum
48 X 72 inches
Untitled
2002-2003
Enamel on aluminum
46 X 62 inches
Untitled
2003
enamel on aluminum
48 X 40 inches
Root’s distinctive, idiosyncratic sense of color and line is evident. Brightly colored forms push against each other to create imagery suggestive of floor plans or walking maps of city neighborhoods; the artist likens it to “walking from the East Village to Chelsea to Chinatown.” These new paintings mirror the density and surprise of urban living.
These metal cut outs combine the scale and formal considerations of Root’s previous geometric abstract paintings with the irregular shapes of smaller works on paper which the artist has been making since 1998. Root plays with traditional figure-ground relationships, creating paintings that contain no negative space and draw on references from Ellsworth Kelly and Richard Tuttle to 19th Century silhouette cut outs.
Like her previous paintings these new works do not contain negative space or foreground/background relationships. Unlike her previous paintings that included eyes that look back at the viewer, or abstractions smoking cigarettes, in this show, such anthropomorphic details have been left aside. Instead the internal workings of each painting, and its relationship to its environment, take precedence.
Ruth Root : Andrew Kreps Gallery
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