New
American Landscape
by Gregory Grenon
Laura Russo Gallery
805 NW 21st Ave., 226-2754 Ends May 1
Barefoot Traders
by Arvie Smith
Quartersaw Gallery
528 NW 12th Ave., 223-2264 Ends June 1
Tommy's Wife, the most pleasing painting in Arvie Smith's
current exhibit, has a naive quality. A black female is surrounded
by a decorative, geometric border. Her red high-heeled shoes
and face are in profile; her overly wide shoulders and torso
are turned forward. She's draped in a boxy, brightly patterned
dress. The other works in this exhibit are more typical of
what has come to be Smith's signature style: curvaceous, overtly
sexual black women painted in saturated colors and pushed
into the foreground, as if tempting the viewer. In Sally
Hemmings' Chamber Maid, for example, the big-breasted,
wide-eyed female subject is very large-scale, dwarfing the
slave ship floating on open water behind her. The concept
of slavery is relegated to the piece's background and title,
which has serious problems of its own--Smith both misspells
Hemings' last name and refers to her as having a chamber maid
rather than being one. Hemings was a slave of Thomas Jefferson's
and, as recently indicated by DNA testing of Jefferson's and
Hemings' family descendants, quite probably his mistress.
But the center of the composition, and of the viewer's attention,
is the figure's voluptuous lips, hips and breasts. The same
dynamic is at work in The Governor's New Bride.
If Smith had intended these seductresses to be symbols
of exploitation, he would have achieved a brilliant double
meaning: The artist exploits the female figure by representing
it as a sexual object, just as whites exploited blacks.
Sexual object and slave were often one and the same, after
all; one of the injustices suffered by female slaves was
being raped by their masters. But Smith's use of this symbolism
is out of balance, and therein lies the problem. The artist
sets the stage for subversive comment, but he falls short.
Other contemporary African-American artists, namely Robert
Colescott, convey clearer messages and thus tackle black
history more effectively.
Tommy's Wife is free of this confusion because it
doesn't carry references to slavery. It's a generalized,
dignified portrait that refers only to itself. Smith says
that this piece and the others like it were inspired by
his interactions with glass artists in Senegal, who encouraged
him to emphasize design in his imagery. Here he provides
his composition with clarity and balance. The surrounding
border and the interplay between the shapes that compose
the patterned garb appropriately recall African fabrics
and wood carvings.
Like Smith, Gregory Grenon uses women as subjects. In his
reverse paintings on glass, Grenon's greatest talent lies
in his use of color, rather than in the sensitive understanding
and portrayal of his subject. As Henri Matisse proved, an
abstraction of the female form can serve an excellent colorist
well; Grenon would benefit from paying attention to this
example by further simplifying and abstracting his shapes.
The best offerings of this exhibit are moments when the
viewer can become lost in the interplay between a blue background
and abstracted locks of deep black hair, or in a swatch
of vibrant yellow, like the dress in I've Got Dreams
to Remember. The small-scale What's Puzzling You?
is the most successful piece in the show because the simple
shapes and bright colors are few. Here, the subject, depicted
from the shoulders up, tilts her head of red hair toward
the narrow strap of her chartreuse dress. This is offset
by a wide purple frame.
But What's Puzzling You? is the exception. Many
of the works have too many disjointed elements and under-considered
compositions that detract from Grenon's flare for combining
colors. In Climactic Scenes, for example, Grenon
uses a multiple-paned door for his painting surface. Each
of the glass panes in the top three tiers bears a rendering
of a woman's face. But those toward the bottom are pressed
full of bits of junk, such as paper clips and political
buttons. The artist may intend for these to be windows on
contemporary society, but they detract from the strength
of the accompanying paintings.
For the past several years, Smith and Grenon have had annual
solo exhibits at Quartersaw and Laura Russo, respectively.
Each of their current shows includes a few excellent paintings,
namely Tommy's Wife and What's Puzzling You?
But for the most part, Smith continues along his path of
representing the black woman as temptress, and Grenon continues
to paint women in the same way he has for years. Taking
a break from the annual exhibit cycle might permit them
time to further explore and expand their subject matter.
Their understanding of women is necessarily limited by virtue
of the fact that they are men. If they were to follow the
direction of their strongest works, however, they would
move into new territory at last.
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Willamette Week | originally
published April 28,
1999
|
