Curious Curvitudes

 

Curious Curvitudes 

Roseine

Holding

Backslide

Kick Off

Tresspassing

Isolation

Echoes

By Tom Wachunas

 

“…I invite viewers outside of themselves for a short period of time, offering a break from the bombardment of distractions, notifications, and news encountered on a daily basis.”  - Emily Bartolone, from her exhibition artist statement

“There is a poetic nature to minimalism that is about striking a balance between full and empty.”  - Jennie C. Jones

 

EXHIBIT: On Its Head – paintings by Emily Bartolone / THROUGH SEPTEMBER 8, 2024, at Massillon Museum Studio M / 121 Lincoln Way East, downtown Massillon / Tuesday- Saturday 9:30 am – 5:00 pm, Sunday 2:00-5:00 pm / 330.833.4061

                                                           https://www.emilybartolone.com/ 

 

Click on this link to the Massillon Museum podcast talk with the artist:

https://www.massillonmuseum.org/home/programs/massmusings-musem-podcast

 

   The acrylic paintings by Massillon-based artist Emily Bartolone are a collectively playful deconstruction of Minimalism and its often austere, grid-and-bear-it formal structuring. The elegant simplicity of Bartolone’s works is a gentle interrogation, if not an interruption, of Minimalism’s typically rigid, stoical aesthetic.

   As she puts it in her statement, “…The introduction of curved shapes allows me to push back against the bravado of minimalism and geometric abstraction.” She tosses curve-balls, so to speak, across the plane of the playing field.

    Not illusionistic in an outright representational way, these works are nonetheless fascinating in their suggestibility. The curvaceously contoured shapes are subtly textured, biomorphic forms rendered in beautifully nuanced hues -  what Bartolone calls “anthropomorphized.” They bring to mind floating body parts in varying attitudes, positions, profiles.

   These are little paintings – usually around 12” x 9”. Yet even on this small scale, there is an uncanny largeness in the way they exude an immersive  intimacy, a poetic personal narrative. Their intimacy is often punctuated, indeed augmented, by a single tiny colored dot or circle situated at a particular spot in the field of the painting. Maybe think of these focal points as rest stops on your journey as viewer. They remind me of looking at maps of locations that include a flashing arrow indicating, “You are HERE.”

    Where’s here? A memory, an emotion, a friendly encounter, a dilemma, a funny moment? Bartolone’s titles – such as Blues, Holding, Tresspassing, Isolation, Kick Off – are delightfully curious invitations. From passive resting to active looking somewhere just around the next bend, can you…relate?

   Enjoy your trip.