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Fredericks & Freiser is proud to present a historical exhibition of
John Wesley paintings from 1977 to 1990. Alice’s Floor: Repetition and
Absence focuses on two aspects of Wesley’s paintings made during the
1980’s that are less narrative and more elemental than his earlier work.
Wesley’s large repetition paintings from this time consist mostly of
simple forms such as dogs, sailboats, horses, mountains, and babies.
The visual rhythm of their seriality creates a dynamic between positive
and negative space and a perceptual shift from figuration to abstraction.
However the overall tone of these works comes from the multiplication
of the form itself and is nothing less than haunting.
Likewise, Wesley’s paintings of absence from this time period have a
similar sense of disquiet. These visualizations of emptiness become
internalized as emotional states. Here the two opposite modes of
painting hold a similar power of psychological hieroglyphs.
About the Artist
John Wesley (b.1928) has created an unrelenting and remarkably
singular body of work whose subject is no less than the American
psyche. While many artists of his generation have used the popular
image to explore the cultural landscape, Wesley has employed a comic
strip-style and compositional rigor to make deeply personal, often
hermetic paintings that strike at the core of our most primal fears, joys
and desires.
John Wesley has had numerous retrospectives including Stedelijk
Museum, Amsterdam (travelled to Portikus, Frankfurt); Kunstverein
Ludwigsburg, (travelled to DAAD Galerie, Berlin); PS1/MoMA, Harvard
University Art Galleries at the Fogg Museum; Museum Haus Lange,
Krefeld; and Fondazione Prada at the 2009 Venice Biennale. His
work is in numerous public collections including the Museum of
Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York;
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; Museum of
Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and Kunstmuseum, Basel. A permanent
installation of his work is on view at the Chinati Foundation, Marfa,
Texas. This will be the artist’s 68th solo exhibition and his 10th at
Fredericks & Freiser.
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