Suzanne Caporael "Blue Uniform" by Miles McEnery Gallery

SUZANNE CAPORAEL

725 (once), 2017 Oil on linen 30 x 22 inches 76.2 x 55.9 cm

SUZANNE CAPORAEL BLUE UNIFORM

MILES M c E N E RY G A L L E RY

520 West 21st Street New York NY 10011

tel +1 212 445 0051 www.milesmcenery.com

525 West 22nd Street New York NY 10011

SUZANNE CAPORAEL: BLUE UNIFORM By James G. Snyder

Philosophy provides us with diverse theories that define art and determine its intrinsic value. These theories variously frame art in logical, cognitive, religious, social, political, and even subjective terms. The underlying assumption is that art needs some external justification to exist and to hold value for us. Philosophers and critics have thus translated art, and our experience of it, into terms and languages that are distinct from art itself. Skepticism about the value of art is rooted, in part, in the problems that surround these kinds of translations. Objects and ideas, after all, belong to diﬀerent ontological categories; the former are material things that take up space, while the latter are dependent on the mind for their existence. What is distinctive about art, and our experience of it, can easily be lost when we try too hard to make art objects fit the theory. The eighteenth-century skeptic David Hume, for example, wrote that we “gild or stain” the world with our judgments, and this includes our judgments about art. Caporael’s paintings resist the traditional exclusionary framework. They oﬀer a counterexample to philosophies that cast art in either overtly rational or entirely subjective terms. Resistant to codification, her body of work is both of the mind and of the senses. Her paintings are of the mind because they compel us to consider the nature of reality and our own perception of it, but they are not purely conceptual as objects—at least not in the strictest sense of the term. They

are too physical for that. They are of the senses because they are precise but not manufactured. They reveal a rigorous, diligent, and patient approach to the artist’s craft. One sees the hand as servant to the mind. These paintings are built of salvaged bits of common objects we regularly encounter in our everyday environment, but on the canvas they are rendered as both familiar and entirely distinct from our ordinary perception of them, and no allusions are made to their origins. The paintings have something to show, but they remain quiet about their meaning and significance. They are the vestigia of known things, and they echo the physical world.

There is an atomistic quality to Caporael’s paintings that is noteworthy. They cause us to see that the universe is constructed of an indefinite number of shapes, colors, and concepts, out of which all of us make our own meaningful alignments. The paintings appear rooted in Caporael’s search for a truth that wanders across expansive geographic and intellectual spaces. She does not condescend to observers by telling them what to think; she makes observation a participatory act. Some considerations from the history of philosophy help shed light on the significance of Caporael’s paintings, and how we can appreciate them. In fact, history provides us with insights about the limits of philosophy, cognition, and human expression. Plato provided us with a powerful rational framework for understanding art. Yet he balanced this approach with the recognition that there are simply no logical arguments for some of our most important insights. More recently, Ludwig Wittgenstein developed a critique of all nonphilosophical expression, including artistic expression. In the introduction to his Tractatus LogicoPhilosophicus, he explains that “what can be said at all can be said clearly, and what we cannot talk about we must pass over in silence.” 1

1. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, translated by D.F. Pears and B.F. McGuinness (London: Routledge, 2002), p. 3.

On the surface, Plato and Wittgenstein present us with a challenge for judging art and its value. But in their insights, we find a roadmap for assigning a value to Caporael’s paintings that does not collapse into translation, logic, and cognition. The approach reflects on the limits of reason and the diﬃculties of verbalizing our experience of art. In his Symposium, Plato discussed the limits of language, its breakdown, and our inability to articulate clear and consistent thoughts about some of the most important features of our world. When he found language breaking apart, Plato availed himself of other tools to express insights about nature and reality. Philosophers don’t always have logical arguments for their most interesting insights. Book VI of Plato’s Republic compares all of reality to a divided line. On the line’s nadir are the physical copies or replica of material objects— paintings and other art objects—with the greatest insights into the nature of reality located on the line’s summit. Plato abandons coherence and precision in speaking about the summit, and he avails himself of other tools of expression. Much like Plato, Wittgenstein does not entirely deny the value of all expression lying outside of the strict boundaries of logical meaning. Talk about the limits of reason requires that we consider what lies on the other side. Art and our experience of it are fundamentally noncognitive, but this does not erode art’s legitimacy. These considerations about the limits of reason, cognition, and subjective value help us approach Caporael’s paintings, and they can enrich our experience of them. Her paintings speak to us in conceptual terms, but their value is not reducible to their conceptual content. They present abstractions of ordinary objects while also reminding us that they were made by someone and that, similarly, they are being appreciated by someone. In some ways, all descriptions of paintings are somewhat meaningless, nonsensical, or senseless, in large part because words and ideas cannot adequately capture the breadth of what art both says and shows. Plato and

Wittgenstein hold up the power of language, truth, and logic, while also recognizing their limits when it comes to the variety of human expression and experience, and the complexity of the world we live in. Caporaelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s paintings, with their deep blues and polysemous word/titles, acquire multiple meanings by extension and context. There is something primal and pre-philosophical about the act of painting in general, and Caporaelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s paintings in particular.

James G. Snyder is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Honors Program at Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New York.

CAESURA By Sally Van Doren

And then she stopped, as if the irritable reaching found its source, as if the roses were now painted red, as if each wayward thought met a new end, as if drifting did not lead to calculated hysteria. She followed her mind, her mouth and shut down her heart.

NOTES By Suzanne Caporael

Trees and chemicals, road trips and pigments, ice and estuaries, vision and time. For thirty-five years, subject matter fed my curiosity, battled my ignorance, and fueled my work. I wandered. I said I’d never make paintings about painting. Now I see I’ve been doing it all along. Where we can’t be pioneers, we must be pilgrims.

***

At the end of each day, whether in the studio or on the road, I write myself a note. I tell myself what I’ve done and what I will do. Very often, there is discord. I talk to myself, and notes beget more notes. What follows here are a few excerpts from hundreds of notes from the two years spent making these paintings.

Jan. 2, 2017, studio: experiment over a ven. red veil: try equal pts. chrome yellow and cob. blue. That’s disgusting. Heard on the radio that John Berger died. I remember Berger’s fulminations (early ’70s) against what he called the special relationship between painting and property. As a Marxist he found it obscene—the practice of parting fools from their assets. I wonder if he quite understood what the painter gets out of painting. What else is all that stroking of the canvas but love incarnate?

April 17, 2017, Ronks, Pa.: Couldn’t take it anymore. Got oﬀ 30, found a 2-lane road. It’s a luxury to have something to look at. It’s also a privilege and relief to be able to close my eyes when confronted with the franchise necklace choking every town on the road.

May 20, 2017, studio: next time keep all paint a little stiﬀer. Brush out each section before adding next, use spec. tit. wht. mix in each dark. This layer 9 hrs. At some point, it is useless to push paint around. It is a great disappointment to me that at times, when I come into the studio to see what I have done the day before, the thing has transmogrified. It has its own properties and its own language, and it’s not going to take orders from me. That sort of belligerence from an inamimate object is intolerable. 10

June 2, 2017, studio: Does this need some Pb and cal.carb.? Order linen. Deposit gallery check. Money. I do understand the bargain I’ve made. I have to let go of one thing to reach for another. I get to paint again.

Nov. 28, 2017, studio: twelve hours. layer 2, shape first, color same but added some p. grn. deep (py 14 + pb 15) as it looked too purple. Brushed it out. Still too purple? Turner made a painting he loved with a pigment he loved and called it his darling. He knowingly painted with a fugitive red. We can see the painting, but we don’t see what he made because he wasn’t making it for us to witness. It was a furtive act of consummation. The best are.

Oct. 13, 2017, studio: “black” is ven. red, Mn vio.+ p grn. dp. All three blues are combs. of ven., crox, p grn. dp., Mn vio. Added spec of tit. wht. to each. Have I seen this before? Mine, or remembered? It’s a gift to be living in this time, where all is now, and all artists, dead and alive have become our peers. We are awash in hundreds or thousands of years of imagery, and yet, across the centuries, there’s a certain camaraderie in our eﬀorts. Of course, we’re in conflict, too, between collective memory and collective amnesia. Curious to know whether the image on my canvas is mine or remembered. I take a picture of my painting and run it through a Google image search. It comes back, “Best suggestion, floor tile.” There you have it. Humbled by the machine.

Dec. 3, 2017, studio: Woke up missing V. Used her brushes for the first time. Worn to her hand—remember to adjust grip or stroke trails downward as the brush slides right. When I wake up, the first thing I see is a small painting signed, “Virginia Holt, 1967.” It batters my already beaten heart. I lost my friend. My hands go quietly about their work, but I feel my inner voice sputter in exasperation. Memory abuses feeling, and grief becomes tedious—which would be funny if it didn’t hurt so much.

Jan. 5, 2018, studio: Trying the p grn.dp /p. Vio. Never should’ve looked at that angular unconformity. Turn it on its side. Order more linen, start over. Getting too pretty, fix it. Avoid perfection—use scissors. Tomorrow start in the middle. Don’t know why I’d write that—I always start in the middle.

Feb. 25, 2018, studio: water makes the boat. Ben said that, years ago. It keeps floating up. There’s a painting in it somewhere.

March 3, 2018, Cameron, Louisiana: On the ferry to Holly Beach the dog is sitting up in the back seat barking at the dolphins swimming alongside. A man walks up to the car window, points at Tommy and says, “That there’s a Catahoula hound, use ’em for cattle around here. I know me a Catahoula.” Then, to Tommy, “You go herd you some cows now!” In the weeks that followed, Tommy was called a beagle, a bluetick, and a Tennessee coon hound, to name just a few. This is how it works: All the things we think we know are all the things we think we’ve seen. 12

April 26, 2018, studio: darks first—ven. red, darken with p. violet. Bkgrnd, m. cool, m. wm + t wht. Too many interruptions—Bruce. Now the blue looks too watery. Check pig. numbers on the vio. I drowned once. I didn’t mind, but I was surprised and a little disappointed to find myself washed up on the beach, conscious. Painting is just like that.

Aug. 5, 2018 (Maine): Kayaked out from Ryders Cove to Sabbathday Beach and back. 3 hrs. Good water, two bad drawings, chocolate cake. My birthday. Every year I wonder if I’ll still be able to lift the sea kayak onto the roof of the car. This year I’ll be seventy. I’ve been trying on this old lady thing for quite a while. Lately, it fits. Not only does it fit, I find it suits me. I think of all the wonderful things that didn’t happen to me, and I’m grateful.

Sept. 18, 2018, studio: Wasted time. Blue not blue enough. Saw in NYT Annette Michelson has died. Unbelievable.

I discovered the first issue of October (Spring 1976) at the gallery where I worked. I stole it, and I still have it. I was a student then, complacently ingesting the daily dose of rhetoric, but here was someone talking about art in an extraordinarily foreign language. I couldn’t always follow, and there were scant pages devoted to painting, but I have enjoyed stumbling through, admiring her craft. I’ll miss her voice on the page.

Nov. 27, 2018, studio: Damn. scrimped where I should’ve splurged. Have to do it over. Start by adding pv 23 for darks and brush down. No good—looks more like a suggestion of god knows what. Painting is dependant on the visible and the invisible. If the visible is too obvious, the invisible is obscured. How could it be so hard to collapse the distinction between too much and too little? I want it to be just enough. Enough is plenty. Or maybe not. Maybe enough is too much. 13

Dec. 6, 2018, studio: Now that damn green is making too much noise and I’ll have to scrape it out. That was a tough day. I love tools, especially hand tools. I have a pipe wrench, two adjustable spud wrenches, inside calipers, outside calipers, and plumb bobs galore. I have a contour gauge, a socket wrench, and a nut driver. I’ve got web clamps and C-clamps and spring clamps. I have a jack plane, a bench plane, and a spokeshave. I’ve got bench rules, folding rules, tape rules, five levels, two crosscut saws, a coping saw, and a hacksaw. I have tin snips, straight and duckbill; wing dividers; and a chalk line reel. I have a vise, and so, so very much more. How is it that, so often, the thing I need is not at hand? Everything important is invisible. Suzanne Caporael’s notes are rendered as she jotted them down. Small letters followed by numbers are pigment numbers. Pb and Mn are the chemical symbols for iron and manganese.

725 (once), 2017 Oil on linen 30 x 22 inches 76.2 x 55.9 cm

726 (untitled, P), 2017 Oil on linen 48 x 36 inches 121.9 x 91.4 cm

727 (near), 2017 Oil on linen 54 x 42 inches 137.2 x 106.7 cm

730 (man), 2017 Oil on linen 30 x 20 inches 76.2 x 50.8 cm

734 (court), 2018 Oil on linen 48 x 36 inches 121.9 x 91.4 cm

735 (honey), 2018 Oil on linen 30 x 20 inches 76.2 x 50.8 cm

736 (room), 2018 Oil on linen 30 x 20 inches 76.2 x 50.8 cm

737 (paper), 2018 Oil on linen 30 x 22 inches 76.2 x 55.9 cm

738 (book), 2018 Oil on linen 30 x 22 inches 76.2 x 55.9 cm

739 (hunt), 2018 Oil on linen 48 x 36 inches 121.9 x 91.4 cm

740 (school), 2018 Oil on linen 60 x 90 inches 152.4 x 228.6 cm

741 (march), 2018 Oil on linen 54 x 42 inches 137.2 x 106.7 cm

742 (leer), 2019 Oil on linen 54 x 42 inches 137.2 x 106.7 cm

743 (sign), 2018 Oil on linen 54 x 42 inches 137.2 x 106.7 cm

744 (rich), 2018 Oil on linen 54 x 42 inches 137.2 x 106.7 cm

745 (blue, 1), 2018 Oil on linen 66 x 48 inches 167.6 x 121.9 cm

746 (blue, 2), 2018 Oil on linen 66 x 48 inches 167.6 x 121.9 cm

747 (blue, 3), 2018 Oil on linen 66 x 48 inches 167.6 x 121.9 cm

749 (bank), 2018 Oil on linen 60 x 84 inches 152.4 x 213.4 cm

750 (letter), 2018 Oil on linen 54 x 42 inches 137.2 x 106.7 cm

751 (pour), 2018 Oil on linen 54 x 42 inches 137.2 x 106.7 cm

SUZANNE CAPORAEL Born in Brooklyn, NY in 1949 Lives and works in Lakeville, CT

EDUCATION 1979 MFA, Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles, CA 1977 BFA, Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles, CA

SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2019 Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY

2008 “Going,” Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL 2007 “Roadwork,” Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York, NY 2006 “Time,” Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL 2005 “Reading Time,” Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York, NY and St. Louis, MO “Works on Paper,” Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM “A Decade,” Lemberg Gallery, Ferndale, MI 2004 “Tide Waters,” Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL 2003 “Littoral Drift,” Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York, NY “Recent Prints,” Hemphill Fine Arts, Washington, D.C. 2001 “Turnagain Arm and Other Cold Places,” Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL 2000 “Melt: New Paintings,” Kohn Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA “Works on Paper,” Karen McCready Fine Art, New York, NY 1999 “Studies for Melt,” Karen McCready Fine Art, New York, NY

2012 “Seeing Things,” Ameringer | McEnery | Yohe, New York, NY

1998 “The Elements of Pigment,” The Lemberg Gallery, Birmingham, MI; Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL; and Kohn Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2010 “The Memory Store,” Ameringer | McEnery | Yohe, New York, NY

1997 “Recent Paintings,” In Khan Gallery, New York, NY “Suzanne Caporael,” SOMA Gallery, La Jolla, CA

1996 “The Five Kingdoms and The Periodic Table of Elements,” Kohn Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL; Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1985 “Suzanne Caporael,” Irit Krygier Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA “Summer 1985: Nine Artists,” (nine one-person exhibitions), Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA

1994 “Paintings, from the Series Inside Trees and Living on Permafrost: Black Spruce,” Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1984 “Suzanne Caporael,” Newport Harbor Art Museum (now Orange County Museum of Art), Newport Beach, CA

1993 “Inside Trees,” Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

1992 “Second Nature,” Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1991 “Suzanne Caporael,” Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL “Paintings and Works on Paper,” Richard Green Gallery, Santa Monica, CA “New Work,” Lisa Sette Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ 1989 “Recent Paintings,” John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA “New Paintings,” Lisa Sette Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ 1988 “New Work,” Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL “Recent Work,” Harcus Gallery, Boston, MA; Krygier/Landau Contemporary Art, Santa Monica, CA 1987 “Recent Paintings,” John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1986 “Recent Paintings,” Krygier/Landau Contemporary Art, Santa Monica, CA “California Viewpoints,” Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA

2018 “Known: Unknown,“ New York Studio School, New York, NY “Belief in Giants,” Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY 2017 “SITE/SIGHT,” Cross Contemporary Art, Saugerties, NY “The Times,” The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY “Oklahoma and Beyond: Selections from the George R. Kravis II Collection,” Oklahoma State University Museum of Art, Stillwater, OK 2016 “Beyond Likeness: Mapping the Self,” Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, WI “The Other: Nurturing a New Ecology in Printmaking,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville, FL 2015 “Celebrating the Spectrum: Highlights from the Anderson Collection,” de Young Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 2014 “Color Rhythms,” Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM 2011 “(Un)Natural Histories,” Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO

2010 International Exhibition of Visual Arts, The American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY 2008 “People and Places,” Atrium Gallery, St. Louis, MO “New Prints: Spring 2008,” International Print Center New York, NY “Less is More,” 511 Gallery, New York, NY 2007 “Empty Nest: The Changing Face of Childhood in Art, 1880 to the Present,” (curated by Lowell Pettit), Nathan A. Bernstein & Co, New York, NY 2006 “Nine Decades of Los Angeles Art,” Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2005 “New Art New York: Reflections on the Human Condition,” Trierenberg Holding Inc., Traun, Austria 2003 “Components,” Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, OR “Pressure Points,” The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 2002 “Linger,” Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York, NY “Plotting: A Survey Exhibition of Artists’ Studies,” Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, IL 2001 “On Language: Text and Beyond,” Center Galleries, Detroit, MI 2000 “Identities: Contemporary Portraiture,” Palmer Gallery, New Jersey Center for Visual Arts, Summit, NJ “Watch,” Bona Fide Gallery, Chicago, IL “Ellsworth Kelly and Suzanne Caporael,” Graystone Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA

1999 “Retrospective of the Collection of David Teplitzki,” Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO “The Great Drawing Show,” Kohn Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA “A Quiet Storm: Painting in Abstraction,” Kohn Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 1998 “Cleveland Collects: Contemporary Art,” Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH “Hands on Color,” Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, WA 1996 “Between Reality and Abstraction,” NICA Gallery, Las Vegas, NV “Rediscovering the Landscape of the Americas,” Gerald Peters Gallery, New York, NY 1995 “New Abstraction,” Kohn Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 1993 “45th Annual Academy Purchase Exhibition,” American Academy of Arts & Letters, New York, NY “Sea Fever,” Transamerica Pyramid Center, San Francisco, CA 1992 Inaugural Exhibition, Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA “Selective Visions,” Transamerica Pyramid Center, San Francisco, CA 1991 “Group Show,” Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, CA “Individual Realities in the California Art Scene,” Sezon Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan “Selections From the Peter Norton Collection,” Rand Corporation, Los Angeles, CA “Presswork: The Art of Women Printmakers,” The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.

1989 Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL

Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA

1988 “Land,” ACA Art Gallery, New York, NY 1987 Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL “Alumni Invitational,” Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles, CA “Avant-Garde in the Eighties,” Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA The Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY

AWARDS

University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ

1986 National Endowment for the Arts Painting Grant

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA

SELECT COLLECTIONS Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, WI Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI Fogg Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu, HI Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA

Published on the occasion of the exhibition

SUZANNE CAPORAEL BLUE UNIFORM 30 May – 6 July 2019 Miles McEnery Gallery 525 West 22nd Street New York NY 10011 tel +1 212 445 0051 www.milesmcenery.com

Publication © 2019 Miles McEnery Gallery All rights reserved Essay © 2019 Dr. James G. Snyder Notes © 2019 Suzanne Caporael Poem © 2017 Sally Van Doren Photography by Christopher Burke Studio, New York, NY Color separations by Echelon, Santa Monica, CA Catalogue layout by McCall Associates, New York, NY ISBN: 978-1-949327-12-0 Cover: 749 (bank), (detail), 2018

MILES M c E N E RY G A L L E RY