March 2009, Philadelphia, PA – Locks Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings by Pat Steir. Paintings on Painting will be on view April 3rd through May 19th, 2009. There will be a reception for the artist on Friday, April 3rd, from 5:30 to 7:30pm.
In her third exhibition at Locks Gallery, Pat Steir shows works that address the history of painting. This suite of paintings acts as a love letter and farewell to the work of Barnett Newman and Ellsworth Kelly. Using their concepts as a point of departure, Steir both honors them and moves on.
Boycotting the idea of design or arrangement, and encompassing the entire color spectrum, Steir divides her square paintings directly in the center of the canvas. The dividing line where the colors meet is splashy and uneven, subverting the minimalism of her predecessors. With love and deep admiration and a bit of irony, Steir addresses each aspect of the history of painting, one by one, in exhibition after exhibition.
Doris van Drathen writes that Steir’s work is, “linked by an underlying investigation into the illusion of reality and its perception - a philosophical inquiry that perpetually asks: What do you see, and what do you think you see? Every painting is an exploration that questions the nature of what it is: a painting.”
Pat Steir is the recipient of a Guggenheim Artist’s Fellowship (1981), a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artist’s Grant (1973), and an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Art from Pratt Institute (1991). She is a founding board member of Printed Matter bookshop, New York, and the landmark feminist journal, Heresies. Her work is included in major public collections around the world, including: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; The Museum of Modern Art, NY; The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; The San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts, CA; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY; The Tate Gallery, London; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY. Pat Steir lives and works in New York.
