top: Edward Shalala, Translucence (2005), painting, 12"x12"
bottom: William Cromar, Spit, site-specific wall drawing

Minimal Works Gallery

by
James Rosenthal

The End Game, as it has come to be known, has been knocking around on and off since (Black Square, 1915) Malevich, and is still a rarefied trope to reckon with. Robert Ryman is no slouch after all and he still serves as mentor. Here Beginneth the Lesson: Matisse and Picasso flattened everything, lifting the flatitudes of Master Cezanne. In general terms, this flatness became the most singular hall-mark of Modernism. Many added to it as the 20th century marched on but by the late forties and early fifties, the not-so-flat abstract brush mark (and alcohol and angst) dominated, forming a sort of parallel to the sister-urge in the modernist appetite for endless reduction. By the end, as Rauschenberg and Johns both played with that brush mark in an ironic way, Abstract Expressionism was out. Left in its place was the newly invented Pop Art, which slyly had more to offer than it seemed. Also left was the continuation of fussing with intellectual purity. This led directly to Stella’s black paintings and the road to absolute minimal art of Carl Andre and Donald Judd and finally to the pure concepts of Joseph Kosuth. By the end of the 70s this debate seemed to run out of steam to be replaced by a more complicated doctrine of multiple theory and practice with less reliance on style and long standing modernist myths. It could be that the crisis of Modernism followed the twentieth century closely and by the end, culture was a more suspicious commodity. It must have been harder and harder to remain earnest through the Cold War and into the Vietnam Era. This might explain why the lofty vision of avant garde architects in the twenties and thirties no longer seemed possible. The final phase of High Modernism saw artists working bigger and bigger for giant new museum walls. Why did these paintings by Stella, Reinhardt, Klein, Still, Pollock, and Rothko look so good in modern settings? Because architecture was central to that reducing scenario and led the way until someone pointed out that we still would like to open our windows and sit by fireplaces. This is where the tendency to expand endlessly began showing limits.

Today, artists who play with End Game strategies have to be fairly clever by nature or they would simply engage in something more rudimentary and conventional. It can be a little like shooting off your own foot and frankly, most artists steer away from the intellectual and historical snags required in devising “the last painting” or indeed, attempting the next big thing in the history of art.

The works by two artists at Minimal Works Gallery offer a unique microcosm of many of these significant tenets. Not exactly the rage today at art fairs, so-called minimal work does infuse much of the well informed art of today. These two artists work different aspects of an end game scenario and both are convincing. Edward Shalala’s small canvases are best appreciated after considering many of these issues while William Cromar’s are enjoyed more immediately due to their strong visual play. Shalala is working in the long tradition and picks up where others have left off. He pushes the small canvases to become a sort of backlight where a shape behind the canvas can be made out ever so faintly. This forces the viewer to confront the essentials of a square stretched canvas taking nothing for granted. Cromar’s pieces serve alternatively as holes for the eye to sink in or as odd three dimensional shaped objects which seem to stick out into the room. This trick of the eye is not as subtle as Shalala’s but more dramatic. Thoughtful stuff.

It may sound silly but I see the advantage of both the minimal look and concepts for the new fangled collectors who are also Philadelphia Condo Dwellers. Why should museums and rich folks get all this incisive art? At Minimal Works you have work that is small and intellectually challenging. It has the added advantage of matching a lot of modern tastes in furniture and decor because it is sparse and functional. It is interesting to note that something can be spared down and cosmic at the same time and still have a post-flat appeal and hidden comments on previous art. I have to admit that with the frenzy of art out there, one forgets that art is made for contemplation. Happily, this new gallery has reminded me of this.

Back to InLiquid's Commentary section index

© 2007 James Rosenthal and InLiquid.com; image copyright © Minimal Works Gallery