For ‘Flash Art’ magazine
Ruth Root’s paintings have reached their ‘mature-cute’ phase. Spread out evenly along the gallery walls, ten new pieces flaunted a grown up sophistication, with their hyper slick surfaces and tightly controlled geometric divisions. Gone were the little eyes and the smoking cigarettes that characterized previous work, and the hanging was arranged, with a few exceptions, in a traditional way. The paintings may be on their best behavior, but plenty of quirky touches in the relation of form and color still lent a mischievous character to the compositions.
Each untitled painting was an assemblage of overlapping rectangular, square and triangular shapes in various shades of purple, gray and orange with accents of yellow. All had an aerodynamic quality, with rounded edges and were hung flush against the gallery wall. One untitled piece had the look of an airplane fin or an Ellsworth Kelly painting jazzed up with more color. The rounded contours of another evoked the shape of a cartoon speech bubble, waiting to be filled by a jokey text. But what really gave the pieces their idiosyncratic, ironic character were the little blocks of color that appeared out of nowhere, usually accenting the edge of the paintings. Their diminutive size and outrageous colors gave them a cheekiness that pervaded the whole show.