Tag: perspective

Mernet Larsen at James Cohan Gallery

Mernet Larsen continues to break with traditional Western linear perspective in new, irresistibly cheeky canvases at James Cohan Gallery that pay homage to Russian constructivist El Lissitzky.  Larsen explains that decades ago, she broke a taboo by imagining that the early 20th century avant-gardist’s abstractions could be read figuratively.  She takes things a step further here, turning El Lissitzky’s circles bisected by long rectangles into an astronaut floating in front of a planet or a restaurant table attending by a plank-like waiter bearing cocktails.  (On view in Tribeca through Jan 23rd .  Masks and social distancing are required).

Mernet Larsen, Astronaut: Sunrise (after El Lissitzky), acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 49 ½ x 49 inches, 2020.

Mernet Larsen at James Cohan Gallery

Perspective is unmoored in Mernet Larsen’s discombobulating scene of a high-level government meeting. The sense of disorientation suits an array of stiff, featureless leaders who with their flat physiques look as if they might go in whichever direction the wind blows. (On view at James Cohan Gallery’s Chelsea location through June 16th).

Mernet Larsen, Cabinet Meeting, acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 61 x 65 ¼ inches, 2017.

Jeffrey Milstein at Benrubi Gallery

Peering down from chartered planes and helicopters, photographer Jeffrey Milstein sees the world from an ordering distance. Here, a container ship moves ahead with tugs in its wake.  Like Milstein’s aerial photos of cities and transportation networks, his nautical views turn monumental manmade objects into a creative play of color and form.  (On view at Benrubi Gallery through March 17th).

Jeffrey Milstein, Container Ship and Tugs 2, archival pigment print, 52 ½ x 70 inches, 2017.

Madame Cezanne at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Slipping into a red dress has adventurous connotations completely suppressed by Cezanne’s portrait series of his wife, Hortense Fiquet, who sat for hours on end as her husband’s patient model. Cezanne’s famous line, ‘Only I understand how to paint a red,’ is put to the test in works that also create psychological intensity by disregarding traditional perspective. (‘Madame Cezanne’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through March 15th).

Paul Cezanne, Madame Cezanne in a Yellow Chair, oil on canvas, ca 1888-90.