“Belief in Paint,” curated by Timothy Harney. Artists include Thorpe Feidt, John Grillo and Richard B. Lethem. New Art Center, Newton, MA. Through Oct. 28.
Painter Timothy Harney believes the current craze for installation and digital media has enabled cleverness and whimsy to trump intensity and conceptual depth. As an antidote, he has curated “Belief in Paint,” which features three old time painters who are still fully engaged in the process of painting. In the Boston Globe, Mr. Harney speaks with writer Denise Taylor. “It’s just not that common to see people really moving paint around now. But this is an old group, and when you get guys who really have this history and have been at it this long, the work just has more depth. It’s not like a 30-year-old who just wants to project an image, paint it, and get the idea out. These are guys who are still involved with the painting kind of arriving and going through great upheaval to arrive at some spot that they don’t know….I hope this show is a wake-up call, or an alert to younger painters that we’re seeing an awful lot of empty painting. I want them to know that people do paint with some intensity, although it may not be the work that’s in fashion.” Read more.
