Tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on; Green Wall series, Shakespeare; Goethe; Edvard Munch; “Abstract by Definition,” curated by Saul Ostrow, American Abstract Artists; Residency news; more / This piece was originally published in Sharon Butler Notebooks on Substack. Subscribe to (or comment on) the monthly Substack Newsletter here.
Hey you,
Reading Gary Garrels’ remembrance of Brice Marden in Artforum in 2023, I encountered a Rothko quote to the effect that paintings are about basic human emotions – tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on. I was not inclined to think about my work in that way, so I spent some time reading about basic human emotions, which, in my placid New England family, were generally dismissed without much examination. I fastened on jealousy, and, relatedly, the overall lack of interest in conceptual approaches in contemporary painting. I set out to explore this emotion in a series of works I call “The Green Paintings.” Shakespeare coined the phrase “green-eyed monster” as a metaphor for jealousy in Act 3, Scene 3, of Othello, in which Iago suggests to him that his wife Desdemona is cheating on him.
O beware, my lord, of jealousy;
It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.
And so the series began. This month, my painting Green Wall 3 (2010-2024) will be on view at Art Cake in “Abstract by Definition: An Index,” the American Abstract Artists’ 90th anniversary exhibition. The show is curated by Saul Ostrow, who was trained as an artist, has primarily worked as an independent critic, curator, and educator since the 1990s, and is the Art Editor at Large at Bomb magazine. In this sprawling 90-artist tour, Saul wants the viewer to consider the full range of meaning of the term “abstract.” As he puts it: “By juxtaposing contrasting works, the installation is intended to orchestrate an internal dialogue that reflects on the nature of abstract art across several realms – philosophical, historical, etymological, and symbolic.” Several panel discussions have been planned over the course of the show — I’ll be participating in one on Saturday, May 9, from 4–5:30 pm, with Saul and artist-writer Tom McGlynn.
Much of the work on view at “Abstract by Definition” is sensationally pristine hard-edge abstraction. When I began the canvas that eventually became Green Wall 3 in 2010, it, too, incorporated bright contrasting colors, geometric shapes, and angular line. By 2024, these qualities had given way to a blurry monochrome that was distinctly – and deliberately – less surefooted. Green Wall 3 is one of ten paintings inspired by Edvard Munch’s posthumously titled Jealousy Paintings and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther, originallly published in 1774, about a young, sensitive writer’s descent into obsessive, unrequited love.
Goethe, swept up in the romanticism of his era, was consumed by the tension between passion and reason, the suffering of the individual, and the destructive potential of unchecked emotion. Central to his consideration is the gnawing agony of gentle rejection – the kind that offers just enough encouragement to keep hope cruelly alive. In 2024, I began, through Two Coats of Paint Press, to publish a limited edition of the novel, which had gone out of copyright, but never got it beyond the artist’s proof stage. Prompted by this exhibition, I finally finished laying it out and sent it to print a few days ago.
My edition of The Sorrows of Young Werther is dedicated to all artists who have ever lived and worked in NYC. If you would like a copy, please join me at Art Cake on Saturday, April 25, when I will be giving out ten free ones. If I have any left, they will be available during the panel discussion on May 9; after that, by special order.
Artists in the show include: Alice Adams • Liz Ainslie • Steven Alexander • Eve Aschheim • Emily Berger • Jeffrey Bishop • Susan Bonfils • Power Boothe • Sharon Brant • Marvin Brown • Sharon Butler • Jacob Cartwright • James O. Clark • Beth Dary • Matthew Deleget • Rob de Oude • Gabriele Evertz • Laurie Fendrich • Joanne Freeman • Cris Gianakos • Carrie Golkin • Gary Golkin • Gail Gregg • James Gross • Lynne Harlow • Carl E. Hazlewood • Mara Held • Pinkney Herbert • Daniel G. Hill • Gilbert Hsiao • Rhia Hurt • Phillis Ideal • Julian Jackson • Erick Johnson • James Juszczyk • Cecily Kahn • Marthe Keller • Iona Kleinhaut • Sarah McDougald Kohn • Victor Kord • Jane Logemann • Stephen Maine • Russell Maltz • Nancy Manter • Joanne Mattera • Tom McGlynn • Creighton Michael • Manfred Mohr • Judith Murray • Lisa Nanni • Christian Nguyen • Megan Olson • Jim Osman • Alex Paik • John T. Phillips • Don Porcaro • Corey Postiglione • Lucio Pozzi • Debra Ramsay • David Reed • Leslie Roberts • Dorothea Rockburne • Marcy Rosenblat • Ce Roser • Irene Rousseau • David Row • Anne Russinof • Cordy Ryman • Lorenza Sannai • Karen Schifano • Mary Schiliro • Claire Seidl • Edward Shalala • Sonita Singwi • Susan Smith • Melissa Staiger • Audrey Stone • Jason Stopa • Li Trincere • Kim Uchiyama • Clover Vail • Vera Vasek • Don Voisine • Merrill Wagner • Stephen Westfall • Mark Williams • Thornton Willis • Patricia Zarate • Tamar Zinn • Nola Zirin
“Abstract by Definition: An Index”
Opening: Saturday, April 11th, 5–8 p.m.
Art Cake, 214 40th Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11232
April 11th–May 30th, 2026
Gallery Hours: Fri/Sat/Sun Noon–6p
Residency News
April 13–17: The Two Coats of Paint Residency Program will host Dale Emmart, an artist based in Pennsylvania, Westchester, and Portugal, where she herself runs a residency. Dale’s Open Studio will be on Wednesday, April 15, 5–7 pm at Two Coats of Paint HQ, 22-19 41st Avenue, Long Island City, NY. Follow Dale on Instagram @de2msart.
Thanks for reading. And, as always, images of new work and information about past projects, writing, and exhibitions, can be found on my website at www.sharonlbutler.com. Follow me on Bluesky at @sharonbutler.bsky.social and on Instagram at @sharon_butler.
Make art not war,
Sharon
