PRINTMAKER’S PIECES ARE USER-FRIENDLY ABSTRACTS
by Wesley Pulkka
Albuquerque Journal
March 30, 2008 Sunday
New Mexico
World-renowned printmaker Garo Antreasian is a pillar of New Mexico’s
arts community. His beautifully installed "Garo Antreasian: Works
on Paper – 50 Years" exhibition at the Gerald Peters Gallery is a
stunning display of graphic design, impeccable draftsmanship and
userfriendly abstraction.
Antreasian was long associated with the Tamarind Institute of
Lithography and the University of New Mexico art department. Though
retired from teaching for many years Antreasian is remembered by
countless students who benefited from his demand for professionalism
and sweat equity skills development.
Antreasian and the late Clinton Adams co-founded the New Mexico
version of the Tamarind Institute of Lithography and turned it into an
international learning center and showcase for artists from around the
world. The original Tamarind Institute of Lithography was founded by
June Wayne in Los Angeles, whose studio was located on Tamarind Alley.
Antreasian’s works on paper are only a part of this prolific artist’s
production. Over the years he produced thousands of paintings and
mixed-media constructions. Though his style has roots in constructivism
and early 20th-century geometric abstraction, his strongest inspiration
can be found in his Armenian background that includes a blend of
Christian and Islamic symbolism.
Antreasian however does not fit into stereotypical cultural matrices.
It’s his comfort with embracing all before him that lends his work
its visual power and compositional authority.
"Armen’s Wallpiece, 2007" is an architectonic tour de force drawn with
charcoal on paper. This tall, vertical composition is designed with
interlocking triangles, rectangles and circles that form a skeletal
structure that might support a skyscraper.
The piece is rendered in an astonishing range of tones that eloquently
reveal the level of practice and skill development to which Antreasian
dedicated himself.
His charcoal drawings titled "Column E, 2000" and "Column F, 2000"
could be easily used as plans for three-dimensional sculptures. They
consist of characters stacked on top of one another and are both
anchored by dark solids that could be sculpture bases.
There are a number of other Antreasian works that could be used
as templates for sculpture including "Sign with Red Below," "Trio –
Plates I, II, III, 1997" and all four works from the "Structura Series"
of 1994.
Two quite different works reveal Antreasian’s sense of play. In
"Black Trees – Yellow Ground, 2000" and "Benin I, 2001" Antreasian
seems to be working directly with the real world as an observer of
trees and architecture. His trees have cactuslike qualities as well
as a kinship with calligraphy.
The architectonics of "Benin I" are presented with a sense of jaunty
humor. The horizontal centerline slightly offsets the vertical
structure lending the drawing an animated feeling.
Though these images are more or less recognizable they in fact come
from the realm of abstract thinking that informs all of Antreasian’s
work. In his notes on the show he mentions that titles are the result
of inevitable associations that the viewer may make but do not reflect
the intention or source of Antreasian’s vision.
In "Excelsior, 2001" Antreasian uses an intertwined herringbone
motif to create movement, tension and grace. The syncopated pattern
echoes sacred knots and other ancient motifs while being informed by
modernist art like that of Piet Mondrian.
Antreasian combined American Indian influence and cutting-edge
technology in "Ojo, 4/15, 1965," a brilliantly colored lithograph
with a nocturnal background. The central image is stretched across
the horizon and bleeds up and down the left and right edges.
The piece, though rooted in yarn ojos de Dios, also is reminiscent
of computerenhanced radio telescope images of the Milky Way gathered
by the large array outside of Socorro.
Art historical connections abound in Antreasian’s works including
a touch of Robert Motherwell in "Untitled 80.6.2, 9/16, 1980"
and "Mombassa, 1992". I find a hint of 1950s era Frank Stella in
"Untitled 76.5.3, 1979" a pinstripe piece. In "Untitled 79.6.4, 1979"
an acrylic on embossed paper we find triangular and linear forms like
those explored by Joseph Albers in the late 1940s.
Though these aforementioned artists may have triggered responses in
Antreasian his great body of work is too broad, skillfully executed
and highly personalized to be pigeonholed.
This is one of the most dynamic shows I’ve seen for a while and I
applaud the gallery for an installation that externally captures
the internal rhythms of Antreasian’s work. The placement and spacing
are excellent.
If you go
WHAT: "Garo Antreasian: Works on Paper -50 Years" with 31 pieces.
WHEN: Through April 26. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through
Fridays. Call (505) 954-5700.
WHERE: Gerald Peters Gallery, 1011 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe
HOW MUCH: Free