Surface Tension - oil on canvas - 78" x 48"

Surface Tension - oil on canvas - 78" x 48"

Location: Central New Hampshire

Art critic Clement Greenberg made the hypothesis years ago that Impressionism was the first step taken by modern art to get away from the illusion of space that had predominated painting for hundreds of years. Expressionism and the growth of the abstract painiting was seen as the logical conclusion of this process. Here “Surface Tension” balances that theory with an illusionistic space where all the subjects attempt to define the surface just in case you were thinking we were not aware of this critical assessment of the world and ‘progress’ of painting away from space.

This work was featured in Painted Dogs, August 2009, and in Realist Traditional Art, July 2009.

Dateline July 3rd 2009 – Artist Dave Martsolf today installed the 4’ x 6’ oil painting “Surface Tension” in a vacant retail ground level window on Washington Street in Boston as part of the city’s Boston Art Windows project. The project, sponsored by the Boston Revelopment Authority, Mayor Menino and the City of Boston, brings high quality art to empty retail space that is available between leases in order to maintain the cultural promise of the city to its citizens.

“Surface Tension” will be offered multiple sites as space availability changes throughout the near future. The piece, originally conceived as a counterpoint argument to American art critic Clement Greenberg’s flat painting surface paradigm of American Expressionism, is perfectly at home in its window setting as the people in the painting with hands raised against an invisible surface appear to be pressing their palms against the window itself.

“Surface Tension” was the 1985 winner of the Sawyer Memorial Award for Painting at the 38th Annual New Hampshire Art Association Exhibition at the Currier Gallery of Art in Manchester, NH.

Dave Martsolf
43 Nashua Road
Windham, NH 03087

603-568-0415

davidmartsolf@comcast.net

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Surface Tension - oil on canvas - 78" x 48" belongs to the following groups:

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