Gerald Marcus

by Robert Sievert

Distant Mountain

Gerald Marcus's paintings have evolved over the past few years into strong personal visions of reality. His current show at Prince Street Gallery includes landscapes of both Upstate New York and New Mexico. In all these paintings Marcus takes a softening, atmospheric approach to landscape. Mountains and lakes almost dissolve in air as his forms are felt with a painterly abstraction.

One particular painting, a lake rendered in soft concentric forms brings to mind both Edvard Munch and Arthur Dove. The light patterning on the surface of the water is almost hallucinogenic as the soft forms, closely moderated in color, float out to the viewer and become emblematic. In another painting of New Mexican Mountains the distances between two mountains are achieved with color and light as the distant mountain retreats, a glowintg form embraced by cosmic space. A number of smaller paintings almost seem to be pure abstraction but then slowly construct themselves into landscape.