Rex Lau, Abstract Geometric Oil on Wood Panel (2010)
Description
The art critic Ronny Cohen once wrote "Rex Lau makes paintings that are what the early 20th-century avant-garde called pure plastic equivalents of the real world. His approach strongly recalls the early Modernist tradition of “abstracting nature,” with particular overtones of Cézanne and the Italian Futurist Giacomo Balla." Lau's more recent paintings from the 2000s constitute another approach to landscape painting more reminiscent of Arthur Dove and Marsden Hartley. This work may have been an extension of his Acqua Pazza (Crazy Water) series, inspired by his life living and sailing in and around Montauk, Long Island.
The catalog published by The Drawing Room gallery in East Hampton contained this passage concerning an exhibit of his paintings from this era:
For many, these images may conjure the raked lines of sand surrounding the boulders in Japanese rock gardens. Lau was well into the series before he recognized that the compositions originated in his experience sailing in and out of Fisher’s Island Sound where three islands -- North Dumpling, South Dumpling and Flat Hammock -- require careful navigation. Perhaps the topography rendered on the nautical charts he consults in guiding his boat in and out of this harbor provided an unconscious source for the rings of lines that surround each form. In any case, the fresh approach to seascape is a discovery. The paintings’ limited palette and compressed space contribute to a force that belies their small size.
Details
- Rex Lau (American, 1947- )
- Untitled, Primary Color Composition (2010)
- Oil on wood panel
- Signed verso with Montauk, N.Y. indicated
- 21 1/2" x 19 1/2" (overall) 20" x 18" (sight)
- Likely original white wood floater frame
- Some wear to frame
About the Artist
Rex Lau was born in Trenton, NJ in 1947 and attended the School of Visual Arts in NYC. He moved to Montauk, Long Island in 1979.
Since the late seventies, Rex Lau has had 24 solo exhibitions. Mr. Lau’s paintings and works on paper have been widely exhibited in the United States, and have been shown in Germany, Italy, and Israel. His work has been exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, and the Museo RufinoTamayo in Mexico City. His work is in the permanent collections of eighteen significant U. S. museums, Including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. Critics who have written essays on his work include Stephen Westfall, Donald Kuspit, Amei Wallach, Phyllis Braff, Helen Harrison and Gerrit Henry. His most recent exhibition was at The Drawing Room in East Hampton, New York.
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