Suzanne Caporael by Miles McEnery Gallery

SUZANNE CAPORAEL

ESTEBAN VICENTE

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 BOOK!EIGHT

525 West 22nd Street New York NY 10011

511 West 22nd Street New York, NY 10011

520 West 21st Street New York NY 10011

SUZANNE!CAPORAEL"! COLOR/SURFACE/AESTHETICS By David Carrier What is a surface? That’s a question philosophers are interested in answering and one that was explored in depth by Avrum Stroll. A surface is the part of an object that we see when we look at it. And when we view a surface, we see the color of the object. But where is that color? Is it just on the surface? If I peel an apple or unwrap a package, the surface color comes off, and a different color appears. But that color is on another surface. At least this is the case for colors that are close enough to touch. But others are farther away, and many are beyond anyone’s reach. Looking out of the windows of my study, I see a world full of colors. Some colors, such as those of the changing leaves and the color of my house, appear firmly a"ached to nearby surfaces. But others, like the white of clouds, the blue of the sky or the colors of a rainbow, are untouchable. Color does not have to be a"ached to a surface. 2

Visual artists, too, are interested in colors and surfaces. A number of artists who otherwise have li"le in common all use color that appears una"ached to any surface. Julie Mehretu’s utopian cityscapes, Luc Tuymans’s political paintings, and the background of the Roman wall fresco from Boscoreale that is displayed at the entrance to The Metropolitan Museum of Art use film color. These colors are indefinite in location, spongy in character; since the eye seems to go into them looking for the resistant surface more usually associated with color —Adrian Stokes Making dematerialized light the subject of his installations, James Turrell takes this way of thinking to an extreme. Like clouds, his spatial illusions are literally untouchable. Sometimes Caporael’s titles allude to specific figurative sources. 695 (A van Gogh perspective, a!er “La Crau”) (2014) is one. And, more eccentrically, 691 (Study for a de-populated Darger) (2014) identifies a painting that eliminates the girls depicted by the outsider artist Henry Darger to focus on the landscape. And in other pictures, she makes more generalized references to figurative subjects. 718 (The ploughman’s line) (2016) is one. And 735 (honey) (2018) may be an image of a jar for honey, but the

title of 727 (near) (2017) seems unrevealing. Near to what, one wonders. Frequently, however, her pictures seem to be purely abstract. 744 (rich) and 747 (blue, 3) (both 2018) are two. “Abstract art is always rooted in experience of the real world” (Pepe Karmel). That’s true enough, but o#en the sources of contemporary abstract paintings are elusive. What most impresses me about Caporael’s art is not its diversity, but the unity of the body of her works. I don’t believe that any contrast between abstraction and figuration is ultimately important for her. Landscape. . . means shaped land, land modified for permanent human occupation, for dwelling, agriculture, manufacturing, government, worship, and for pleasure —John Stilgoe Just as it’s hard sometimes to discriminate between nature and man-made landscapes, it’s difficult to distinguish between Caporael’s abstractions and her figurative images. Some painters make what the art critic Clement Greenberg dubbed “homeless representations” (Willem de Kooning’s women and Jasper Johns flags, for example), se"ing figurative elements in a space too shallow to properly house them. Caporael employs “homeless colors,” colors that don’t appear to be on depicted surfaces. Many abstract painters make what look like depictions of odd three-dimensional objects, giving the illusion that if you could reach into the picture, you would touch these things. What might be called the radical abstractness of Caporael’s paintings, including those with figurative subjects, depends upon film color. Her subjects appear untouchable. Some contemporary abstract artists give their paintings verbal titles. Sean Scully identifies people or places, feelings or time of day, providing important interpretative clues. But David Reed numbers his paintings. Caporael provides both numbers and titles, a procedure that identifies a practice in which some paintings have figurative allusions, but others are essentially abstract. Nicolas Poussin’s history paintings inspire sustained examination, as do the apples of Paul Cézanne and the abstractions of Joan Mitchell. Without storytelling, personal subjects, or the drama of Abstract Expressionist brushwork, Caporael’s artworks, too, are visually compelling. At one point, I made lists of what she does and doesn’t do. Her works are painted without shadows. She doesn’t show flashy, bright colors. No jagged forms or painterly brushwork for her. But the more notes I made, the less

I understood. I could understand why Poussins, Cézannes, and Mitchells held my eye. But how was it that Caporael’s relatively simplified forms also commanded prolonged close a"ention? The philosopher and art critic Denis Diderot ultimately came to realize that the best way to write about art was not simply to describe or assess the painting in front of him, but to take the time to have a conversation with himself —Andrew Curran

I, too, find that practice rewarding. Poussin, Cézanne, and Mitchell made a great many artworks. So we need to understand the range of their highly personal individual styles, which made possible the creation of varied works. If, however, only one Poussin or just one Cézanne or merely one Mitchell survived, it still would be possible to understand why they were significant artists. From those single works we could reconstruct the artists’ worldviews. But with Caporael, the situation is different. To properly understand any one of her paintings, you need to be aware of its place within the body of her art. The same is true of some other very different artists. When Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series (1940–41) was first shown, there was a wish to keep those paintings together. Analogously, a#er Andy Warhol’s initial solo exhibition, there was a desire, this time successfully achieved, not to break up the series of his Campbell’s Soup Cans (1962). In both cases, the individual works were much more richly significant when they were seen in the context of the complete series. Refusing to repeat herself and never se"ling into visual cliché, Caporael is endlessly inventive. Artists like Richard Diebenkorn and Robert Mangold have worked in series, developing variations on one theme and showing the diverse ways that a motif can be explored. But the multiplicity of Caporael’s paintings is entirely different. The body of her paintings reveals a style, a play of variations that is not rule-governed. I cannot tell what she might do next. But when I see each new painting, I see that it fits with all of the others. So I know that were you to insert into this exhibition a single very good work by, let us say, Ellsworth Kelly, it would appear completely out of place. Understanding why Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (1917) or Warhol’s Brillo Box (1964) are art has inspired much productive discussion. They have been much imitated. So it is surprising to discover that Caporael’s paintings, which do not seem to be radical, also occasion serious philosophical reflection.

A style of painting is o!en likened to a worldview, a mode of thought, a metaphysical system. . . —Meyer Schapiro It may be without Poussin’s grand subjects, the personal expressiveness of Cézanne’s arrangements of apples or Mitchell’s painterly brushwork, but Caporael’s art, too, presents a worldview. Traditionally, aesthetic experience involves focusing on an individual artifact, and looking closely at that unique artwork. But Caporael asks that we compare and contrast a group of works—for only by seeing these distinct and diverse, but related and highly evocative, images can we can fully appreciate the individual artworks. Of course, that’s how we identify the style of Poussin, Cézanne, or Mitchell. But what’s at stake for Caporael is something different. Our aesthetic experience of her individual paintings involves peripheral awareness of other works. Looking at the works in this show, it’s easy to see that 751 (love le"er) (2019) relates to 755 (long love le"er) (2020), with its longer lines. The partial grid of 756 (upside down and backward) (2020) resonates with 748 (the beggar’s cup) (2020), in which the outline of a cup appears. And 749 (blow me a kiss) (2020) is a good joke in Caporael’s style. But then 753 (wrack on blue), with the Matisse-esque cutout, and 750 (two tantric squares meet on a corner) (both 2020) extend her visual concerns in challenging ways. A great deal of contemporary visual art trades on the employment of imagery from popular culture. That is understandable, for nowadays advertisements, films, and videos provide omnipresent stimulation. And yet, the art that means the most to me is aesthetic painting, art that offers visual pleasures without trading on mass media. The highly distinctive style of Suzanne Caporael’s paintings revivifies our pleasure in aesthetic art. “Style,” so we were o#en told a generation ago, was an obsolete concept. When looking at this show, you can see for yourself that that is no longer true. David Carrier taught Philosophy in Pi"sburgh and Art History in Cleveland. He writes art criticism for The Brooklyn Rail and Hyperallergic.

NOTES Avrum Stroll, Surfaces (1988); Adrian Stokes, Colour and Form (1937); Clement Greenberg, “A#er Abstract Expressionism” (1962); John Stilgoe, Common Landscape of America, 1580 to 1845 (1982); Pepe Karmel, Abstract Art: A Global History (2020); Andrew Curran, Diderot and the Art of Thinking Freely (2019); Meyer Schapiro, Worldview in Painting–Art and Society (1999).

748 (the beggarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cup), 2020 Oil on linen 54 x 42 inches 137.2 x 106.7 cm

749 mask (blow me a kiss), 2020 Oil on linen 54 x 42 inches 137.2 x 106.7 cm

750 (two squares meet), 2020 Oil on linen 54 x 42 inches 137.2 x 106.7 cm

751 (love le#er), 2019

Oil on linen 54 x 42 inches 137.2 x 106.7 cm

752 (wish horse), 2020

Oil on linen 54 x 42 inches 137.2 x 106.7 cm

753 (wrack on blue), 2020

Oil on linen 54 x 42 inches 137.2 x 106.7 cm

754 (Eden), 2020 Oil on linen 66 x 54 inches 167.6 x 137.2 cm

755 (long love le#er), 2020

Oil on linen 66 x 54 inches 167.6 x 137.2 cm

756 (upside down and backward), 2020 Oil on linen 54 x 42 inches 137.2 x 106.7 cm

757 (OH), 2020 Oil on linen 54 x 42 inches 137.2 x 106.7 cm

758 (your crown, sir), 2020

Oil on linen 66 x 54 inches 167.6 x 137.2 cm

759 (specimen), 2020

Oil on linen 66 x 54 inches 167.6 x 137.2 cm

760 (your hat sir, and the door), 2020

Oil on linen 48 x 36 inches 121.9 x 91.4 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 2021 “Book Eight,” 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 “Li"oral Dri#,” 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 1998 “The Elements of Pigment,” The Lemberg Gallery, Birmingham, MI; Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL and Kohn Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 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

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

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

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

1993 “Inside Trees,” Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL 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 Se"e Gallery, Sco"sdale, AZ

2018 “Suzanne Caporael: Prints,” Tandem Press Apex Gallery, Madison, WI “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

1989 “Recent Paintings,” John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA “New Paintings,” Lisa Se"e Gallery, Sco"sdale, AZ

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

1988 “New Work,” Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL “Recent Work,” Harcus Gallery, Boston, MA; Krygier/Landau Contemporary Art, Santa Monica, CA

2015 “Celebrating the Spectrum: Highlights from the Anderson Collection,” de Young Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA

1987 “Recent Paintings,” John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2014 “Color Rhythms,” Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

1986 “Recent Paintings,” Krygier/Landau Contemporary Art, Santa Monica, CA “California Viewpoints,” Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA

2011 “(Un)Natural Histories,” Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO

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

2010 International Exhibition of Visual Arts, The American Academy of Arts and Le"ers, 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 Pe"it), 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 “Pressure Points,” The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 2002 “Linger,” Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York, NY “Plo"ing: 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 & Le"ers, 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 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

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, Pi"sburgh, 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 Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 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

Published on the occasion of the exhibition

SUZANNE!CAPORAEL BOOK!EIGHT

18 February – 27 March 2021 Miles McEnery Gallery 520 West 21st Street New York NY 10011 tel +1 212 445 0051 www.milesmcenery.com Publication © 2021 Miles McEnery Gallery All rights reserved Essay © 2020 David Carrier Director of Publications Anastasija Jevtovic, New York, NY Photography by Christopher Burke Studio, New York, NY Color separations by Echelon, Santa Monica, CA Catalogue layout by McCall Associates, New York, NY ISBN: 978-1-949327-43-4 Cover: 759 (specimen), (detail), 2020

ESTEBAN VICENTE

520 West 21st Street New York NY 10011

tel +1 212 445 0051 www.milesmcenery.com

525 West 22nd Street New York NY 10011