Review: After Virginia at Chart Gallery
© Zabriskie Gallery records, 1951-2010. Portrait of Virginia Zabriskie. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institute.
By CJ Dansdill
Last week, Chart Gallery of TriBeca had its final day of a meditative and beautiful memorial exhibition called After Virginia, a revisitation to notable curator Virginia Zabriskie’s 1989 show “Abstraction and Photography.” The art dealer curated a collection of thirty 20th century artists whose work dealt with the nature creating and portraying the abstract, with or without the use of photography. The reinstatement of the show at Chart is meant as an homage to and celebration of the accredited gallerist, who passed away in May of last year. The collection also serves as an in depth vignette on artists of the period who used experimental techniques to explore modernist themes. Paul Strand, Man Ray, Alfred Stieglitz, Barbara Kasten, Alison Rossiter, Jaroslav Rossler, Aaron Siskind, and Harry Calllahan are among the thirty artists featured in After Virginia.
© Man Ray, Arrangement of Forms, 1950.
Though all the photos are stylistically unique, there are common themes of minimalism and precisionism. Crystalline structures, semi-recognizable material objects, silhouettes, cyanotype, rippling water, and diced up light on sidewalks are among the motifs featured, all of which question the representative nature of photographs and present ambiguous forms that could be one thing or another. The show is consistent and calming, and one may feel an observational repose similar to cloud watching. Each picture requires some scrutiny, for all are decidedly abstract, and easily evoke multiple interpretations. Distorted shapes and unclear dimensions allow the imagination to fill in the spaces of light in motion, VCR tape, reflections, and geometric stilllifes.
© Alvin Langdon Coburn. The Eagle, 1917. platinum palladium print. George Eastman House, 31Studio; Courtesy CLAIRbyKahn Gallery.
© Paul Strand. Photograph, 1917. vintage photogravure. Courtesy Robert Mann Gallery, New York.
