Late German artist Mary Bauermeister addressed natural, mathematical and spiritual order in artworks composed of stones that she collected from beaches around the Mediterranean and Atlantic. Now on view at Micheal Rosenfeld Gallery, a selection of the artist’s work from the late 1950s to 2018 includes her first stone work from 1962 and pieces from the same decade including this large assemblage, ‘Stone Arrow/Error,’ which seems to indicate a colossal downturn or alternatively, a suggestion to look down to the earth. Composed of small to tiny water-smoothed pebbles arranged by size to suggest a recession into infinity at the center, the pattern of stones is broken by a white area of canvas at the bottom. Here, a drawing of a hand drawing the hand that places the stones suggests an awareness of self-awareness that leads the viewer to ponder our frames of reference when it comes to creativity and the natural world. (On view through Jan 31st at Michael Rosenfel Gallery in Chelsea).
