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Mimi Wiesbord: "Silences"

by Robert Sievert

 
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The openeing of the show, with artist (wiesbord) in center talking with artist Manuela Paul


 

Mexican Lake


 

Mount Zaos


 

Mount Zaos

 
The Fall Season got off to a really good start with the opening of Mimi Wiesbord's show of landscapes at the Prince St. Gallery in early September. Wiesbord is a master of reductivist landscape. Her paintings are cool, clear, and, for the most part, understated. They made a wonderful impression as one entered the gallery. They were hung with a great deal of thought and the show itself is a very strong accomplishment.

Many travel the world to find views to paint that inspire them. Mimi Wiesbord is one such artist who has chosen a number of mountainous views that are breath taking and inspire a sense of awe and silence. (She has titled her show "Silences").

Mount Zaos On The Island Of Naxos is realized in the palest of yellows, grays and blues. A misty light moves through the painting and it is only in the green trees in the bottom of the piece that one begins to get a fullness of color. This all contributes to an atmospheric space of the work, in which the distance seems to disolve.

Her painting technique is a very flat unmodulated rendition of forms which places her work closer to graphic (drawing) than painterly interpetation. This works very well for her in the capturing the finite deails of vast landscape spaces she choses to paint. Piles of trees spread out and lead the viewers eye across the painting into the distance and up to the mountains.. There is a calmness in this work,

Most impresive is her six panel painting of a Mexican lake that was the view from her studio window when she visited Mexico. Her understated painting techineque perfectly captures the openness of the mountainous terrain and the viewer feels a light coming from behind the volcanic mountain in the distance. She has developed a wonderful sense of just when enough is enough. While highly delineated the work avoids any sense of fussiness or obsessive detail,

 

 
   

 

ETAOIN
March 17, 2007