Judith Heller Cassell, Lydia of the Two Head Persuasion, mixed roots, fabric, wax
and tree stump, 30 x 26 x 12", 2004.
Courtesy of the Lincoln Levy Gallery. |
NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire Art Association, Robert Lincoln Levy
Gallery/Portsmouth
TWO JUDITHS
Although at first glance the two artists represented in this exhibition seem to have in common only their first names, there are additional
subtle connections unifying the show. Judy Brenner’s oil landscapes emphasize landforms and sky, accented with patches of trees or
man-made structures. Brenner’s paintings cover a range of atmospheric conditions, from bright and crisp to foggy, all presented in close
tonalities. Several overcome their small format to create a powerful sense of space, apparent in such misty scenes as the oil-on-panel
Durham Landing. The paintings also include some beach and boat scenes, which generally lack the sense of immediacy found in the
landscapes. Among Brenner’s etchings and lithographs the most evocative are the close-up views, such as a blue heron in its nest.
Effectively hung in proximity to Brenner’s prints are those of Judith Heller Cassell. The juxtaposition of Brenner’s heron rookeries
and Cassell’s forest interiors not only smoothes the transition from artist to artist but implies their underlying connection: a respect for
natural forms and processes. Cassell works in several print media, including waxed woodcuts, woodcut collages, and white ground etchings;
all are inspired by forest forms, although some are quite abstract.
Cassell’s three-dimensional mixed-media sculptures combine branches, roots, stumps, and bark fungi into anthropomorphic forms
shrouded in waxed cloth whose folds imply classical and Hellenistic models. The resulting figures evoke powerful associations with dignified
Roman processionals such as the Ara Pacis. Other antecedents add richness to the mixture: the medieval imagery of personified
Death; the part-human, part-vegetable creatures of folklore; and the weirdly human trees sometimes found in seventeenth-century
Dutch landscapes.
Judy J. Brenner, Durham Landing, oil, 10 x 13", 2003. |
To the artist, they are the inhabitants of “Arborquest…a fictitious place
haunted by the Manes [Roman deified souls] of slaughtered trees.” They arise to express the damage caused by logging,
inflicting the forest’s natural process of decay and consequent nourishment. Both artists’ use of such fugitive
media as fungi adds a dimension of “process art” to these works. Like the forests, the sculptures seem in a constant
state of transition.
Each of the figures has its own personality. The Dancermakes a direct connection between the forests and human
survival. With its hips, knees, even fingers formed by knotted branches and roots, the skeletal figure gestures dramatically
with extended arms. Joda, Hunter Queenraises her noble, antlered head above a massive yet classically delicate
cloak. She is both mysterious and commanding.
Hanging in the gallery window is Cassell’s Waiting, an enormous woodcut on waxed rice paper. Its translucence
catches and mellows the sunlight, becoming textural and sensuous in its waxy glow. Beside it, and epitomizing
Cassell’s work, is the much smaller ARBORQUEST, consisting of root branches holding a waxed monoprint of forest
forms as if it were a banner in a painting by Hieronymus Bosch.
Robert R. Craven
Also reviewed in this issue:
Joan Morris/Michèle Ratté: Individual and Collaborative Works at AVA Gallery and Art Center
Patricia Kaufman: Bodies of Water at Anderson-Soule Gallery
George Sherwood: Kinetic Sculpture at Saint-Gaudens Memorial Picture Gallery
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