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Glue Works is an exhibition
of new work on paper – small abstract paintings by Victor Kord that
make clear the artist’s perceptiveness with space and shape
correlations, as well as his cleverness with inventive crafting of
materials. The exhibition will open at the June Kelly Gallery,
166 Mercer Street, on January 12 and remain on view through March
2022.
Kord writes, glue works are the
product of invention following personal re-invention precipitated by
the Pandemic. In these recent works my repertory cast, color,
shape, and texture, play in a smaller theater, and operate in a more
improvisational and exploratory manner. As always, one thing
leads to another, and, inevitably, my changing circumstances led to
an interrogation of means and methods.
I re-imagined painting, and made a
water based medium, a mixture of Elmer’s Glue and bottled tempera.
Brushes gave way to scrapers, sponges, scissors, and ketchup squeeze
bottles. I remained invested in figure/ground composition, shape
nudging its rectangular container, but found a fresh and unusual way
to materialize my concepts. There was plenty of wiggle room
for serendipity in these meandering works, to set me on a course
upsetting habit of mind and move
me in unfamiliar directions.
Kord referred to this body of work
as “poverty of means … modesty of means.” As he said these
works reflect the attitude mindful of the outsider artist…using what
material they had for making their art. He cited the
brilliance of Bill Traylor as inspiration.
Using Kord’s words, he positions
shape to center stage, with color, texture, and pattern in
supporting roles. His inventiveness is evident when viewing
the tempera and casein glue painting titled XI (2022), were
initially, arrangement of two similar shapes prompt perceptual
ambiguity. His carefully planned configurations depict a
lyrical geometric symbiosis viewable in multiple ways. The
bold pronouncement of form and color interaction extend the subject
beyond the physical boundaries of the support.
These small works evidence a quote
favored by Kord, wherein Henri Matisse spoke about, “…. an art of
balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or disturbing
subject matter … a comforting influence, a mental balm – something
like a good armchair.” Perhaps these words were of
psychological assist to Kord as he continued to work through the
Pandemic.
Kord said, Josef Albers, my
teacher, while at Yale, admonished us to be studious and modest. I
believe the scale and scope of these paintings are in their way, a
reflection of his example.
Kord retired as a professor of
painting at Cornell University after a teaching career that spanned
more than 40 years. He has shown his paintings extensively
throughout the country and internationally since 1967 at such venues
as the Kathryn Sermas Gallery, New York; André Emmerich Gallery, New
York; Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, and The Aldrich Museum of
Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT. He has received many awards,
including a Guggenheim Fellowship. His work is represented in
the collections of The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Cleveland
Museum of Art, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, and the
Madison Art Center of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, among
others. |
