JOAN WITEK A SUITE OF SIX WATERCOLOURS
BARTHA CONTEMPORARY
A SUITE OF SIX WATERCOLOURS BY JOAN WITEK
Joan Witek has been working with the colour black for several decades. The artist’s personal research into visual paradigms is well documented. Her works are in numerous public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museums of Modern Art in New York and San Francisco, the Albright Knox Museum and the Foundation for Conceptual Art in Germany.
Moving beyond American minimalism, which originated in the 1960s and included artists such as Ellsworth Kelly or Frank Stella, Witek’s technique can be seen as a critical evolution rooted in a deep understanding of Minimalism. While her predecessors relied on pure abstract geometry, Witek suggests her own experiences as a point of departure, even referring to some of her earlier paintings as self-portraits. Indeed, this particular suite of works is of place without depending on site specificity.
We are delighted to be able to showcase this unique body of works. Made during a 1995 residency at the Montauk, Long Island estate of Nobel Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee, the watercolours on paper and in particular on film, were each painted across the entire surface, lending the works a sense of an expanding composition that continues beyond the picture plane. As in many of her drawings and paintings, this small suite of works at first appear to be created in precise patterns, only to reveal irregularities on closer inspection. Loosely painted, these generous watercolours play with our senses, inviting references to tree barks, plowed fields or the movement of waves across a stormy seascape. Each work develops its unique character despite being made using a repeating methodology. As the black watercolour pigment settles on the surface and the water that carried it evaporates, the viewer is left with seemingly organic forms that invite the literal images mentioned above.
Witek’s works are intimate in nature and full of complex suggestions while her artistic vocabulary remains reductive. The resulting pieces are accomplished through the exclusive use of the colour black, chosen for its primitive and emotional character.
Joan Witek Untitled (WC-144), 1995 Watercolour on paper 37.7 x 50.3
Joan Witek Untitled (WC-134), 1995 Watercolour on film 34.5 x 37.6
Joan Witek Untitled (WC-135), 1995 Watercolour on film 32 x 45.6
Joan Witek Untitled (WC-138), 1995 Watercolour on film 37.7 x 50.8
Joan Witek Untitled (WC-136), 1995 Watercolour on film 37.7 x 50.8
Joan Witek Untitled (WC-137), 1995 Watercolour on film 40.5 x 45.8
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