COLIN THOMSON
UNUSUAL CHARACTERS
COLIN THOMSON Unusual Characters
Seeing Painting (is not always what we expect) Recognition is a deception – it replaces the “thing” with an abstract representation which consists of a mental image and a linguistic concept. The representation makes the thing familiar, despite its specific characteristics of color, size, texture, etc. Therefore, we imagine we know what something is even before we come in contact with it. Cognition as a short cut, actually obscures what is before us to such a degree that we are blinded by our expectations. In this manner we come to believe that we know what such immaterial things as the intuitive, spontaneous, systemic, etc. should look like. The problem is these generalities and their accompanying imagery and associations are in all-ways incomplete. They tend to hierarchically privilege certain characteristics over others - this is because the cognitive process is imbued with social and cultural biases that correspond to our environment and up-bringing – It is important to remember that as we are taught to think, we are taught to see. This short dissertation on perception, abstraction, cognition, recognition and habit is necessary because the subjects of Colin Thomson’s paintings are not solely what they appear to be at first glance – the optical play of figure/ ground. What initially seems like merely improvised patterns, determined by their opticality and the artist’s sensibility, in actuality becomes imagery consisting of diverse structures and layers, whose placement is derived by various systemic, aesthetic and formal means. The initial misreading of Thomson’s work is due to his vocabulary of eccentric forms, jigsaw puzzle-like compositions, palette, which do not necessarily correspond with the mechanical and systemic logics which order their execution – This is due in part, to how we imagine the systemic and mechanical to look. Our initial impulse is to make intuitive and the systemic exclusive of one another. Obviously, they are not. For instance, we understand Joseph Albers, Agnes Martin, Sol LeWitt to be systemic – while Eva Hesse, and Barry LeVa appear not to be – yet, Thomson as with Frank Stella and Morris Louis works in a space that permits them to be synthesized – let us identify this arena as the procedural. Concerned with synthesis and assemblage rather than essence, Thomson’s paintings exist within multiple conceptual, perceptual, historical, etc. frames. Each of these can in itself be taken as the whole of his work – yet, to do so would be a mistake. The differing elements that make-up Thomson’s paintings interact or are dependent on each other. It would be an error to see the resulting painting as a gestalt – as a unified pattern that is the sum of its parts. Such a resolution filters out much of what is indexically there. Instead, let us re-orientate ourselves, and consider Thomson’s paintings as propositions concerned with the systemic nature and function of each component relative to our comprehension and judgement. Given his concern for abstract art’s nuances and diversity, Thomson’s works can be thought of as formalist. As used here, the term does not denote he is an adherent of Clement Greenberg’s dictums concerning painting’s imperatives. Instead I use it to indicate that Thomson’s works are the result of an investigation
into abstract painting’s diverse terms and potential identities. Though it does not appear so – these works are essentialist because Thomson is more concerned with discernment and relationships, then with literalism and objectification – Thomson avoids the didactic, making painting’s form into a subject while also preserving it as a means. In Float, 2019 (40” x 34”) with its overlays of color and juxtaposition of clearly defined structures, the artist synthesizes form and color into an image that unifies diverse layered elements and illusions. The results insistently remain committed to emphasizing paint-as-paint. In his own way, though similar to an artist like Morris Louis, the incrementally layered space in this painting remains a puzzle as to how it is put together. Looking at and into the painting, we feel as we move along the pathways and configurations that visually weave in and out across the surface as if we are moving from the physical world of palpable objects into an ethereal one of specters. Thomson takes every opportunity to assert painting’s dual nature as actual and as deception. In this sense, Thomson’s work shares something with those who likewise paint from observation, such as Brice Marden in whose gestural paintings brushstrokes that appear to be spontaneous follow rules, or the hyper-realist Richard Estes whose photo-like images consist of little more that small geometric elements turning photographic information into paint information. Thomson similarly turns materiality into sense data and then into illusions and appearances. If materiality and opticality make-up the objective-side of Thomson’s work the other-side has to do with appearances for his paintings are also seamless montages (collages) of stylistic and art historical references, as well as Thomson’s own habitual and subjective practices. Through these he replicates and subverts certain normative assumptions concerning figuration relative to abstract painting. Ironically, if viewed closely one becomes aware that these very tropes maybe what Thomson seeks to exploit so that he may undermine or expose them – for what they are, which is the very elements that feed our sense of recognition and obscure our view of what is before us: color, form, process ordered by the artist’s determinations to produce a complex contrivance that is simultaneously an object of contemplation and critical self-reflection. Saul Ostrow 2020
Saul Ostrow is an independent curator and critic, and the Art Editor at Large for Bomb Magazine. As a curator he has organized over 80 exhibitions in the US and abroad since 1985. His writings have appeared in art magazines, journals, catalogues, and books in the USA and Europe. In 2010, along with David Goodman and Edouard Prulehiere, he founded the not-for-profit Critical Practices Inc. ( criticalpractices.org ) as a platform for critical conversation and cultural practices. He served as Co-Editor of Lusitania Press (1996-2004) and as the Editor of the book series Critical Voices in Art, Theory and Culture (1996-2006) published by Routledge, London. He has an MFA in Studio Practices from the University of Massachusetts and was a practicing artist till 1996.
Float, 2019, oil on canvas, 40 x 34 inches
Cover, 2019, oil on canvas, 44 x 48 inches
Cover (detail), 2019, oil on canvas, 44 x 48 inches following pages: Passenger 2, 2019, oil on canvas, 30 x 26 inches Passenger 3, 2019, oil on canvas, 30 x 26 inches
Passenger 1, 2019, oil on canvas, 30 x 26 inches
Tomb, 2019, oil on canvas, 48 x 54 inches following pages: Driving School, 2019, oil on canvas, 24 x 56 inches
Eye 2, 2019, oil on canvas, 32 x 28 inches
Traffic, 2019, oil on canvas, 54 x 60 inches
Riding School, 2019, oil on canvas, 24 x 52 inches
Outside, 2020, oil on canvas, 42 x 37 inches
Ladder, 2018, oil on canvas, 26 x 30 inches following pages: Blue, 2020, oil on canvas, 20 x 16 inches Spiral, 2020, oil on canvas, 20 x 16 inches
Pivot, 2019, watercolor on paper, 17 x 16 inches
Double, 2019, watercolor on paper, 17 x 13 inches
Shift, 2019, watercolor on paper, 23 x 20 inches
Colin Thomson b. London, England
EDUCATION Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, MFA, 1977 New York Studio School, New York, New York, 1972-1975 Skowhegan School of Art, Skowhegan, Maine, 1974 Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, Illinois, BA, 1971 ONE AND TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS 2020 Unusual Suspects, High Noon Gallery, New York, NY 2018 CAN U DIG IT? (with Jill Levine), High Noon Gallery, New York, NY 2014 Plot Lines, Outlet Gallery, Brooklyn, NY 2011 Local Colour, Wexford Arts Centre, Bunclody, Republic of Ireland 2003 100 Broadway, New York, NY 1992 Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, NY Projects Room, David Beitzel Gallery, New York, NY 1991 Lieberman & Saul Gallery, New York, NY 1989 Lieberman & Saul Gallery, New York, NY 1987 Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, NY
1986 Winston Gallery, Washington, D.C. SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2020 Open Field, Yard Works Gallery, Brooklyn, New York 2018 Languages of the Heart, John Molloy Gallery, New York, NY 2017 The Painted Desert, Part 1, High Noon Gallery, New York, NY 2016 Juried Exhibition, New York Studio School, New York, NY 2015 Ulterior Motif, The Painting Center, New York, NY Between a Place and Candy, 1285 Avenue of the Americas Art Gallery, New York, NY 2014 Arshile Gorky and a Selection of Contemporary Drawings, Brooklyn, NY ​ 2013 One Room Down: Colin Thomson and Edward West, Sonnenschein Gallery, Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, IL drawing + painting, Newton Barry House Gallery, Bunclody, Republic of Ireland 2011 What I Know - Curated by Jason Andrew, NEW YORK CAMS, New York, NY Jux: New Painitng by Andy Spence and Colin Thomson, Storefront Gallery, Brooklyn, NY 2008 A.M. Richard Fine Art, Brooklyn, NY Allen Gallery, New York, NY 2006 Two Friends And So On, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York, NY Everywhichway, Edward Thorp Gallery, New York, NY
2002 ART DOWNTOWN, curated by Richard Marshall, New York, NY 2001 Group Show, Senior & Shopmaker, New York, NY 2000 Conversation Exhibition, Art Materials, New York, NY 1999 Summer, Art Materials, New York, NY 1998 Group Show, Vedanta Gallery, Chicago, IL Project Space, Art Materials, New York, NY 1997 Santa Fe Art Fair, Art Materials, New York, NY Gramercy Park Art Fair, Art Materials, New York, NY Fixed/Unfixed, Art in General, New York, NY Purely Painting, Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY 1995 Coming to Form, MMC Gallery, New York, NY Works for a Fun House, E.S. Vandam, New York, NY 1994 Directions in American Abstraction: A New Decade, Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, PA 1993 Yale Collects Yale, Yale Art Gallery, New Haven, CT 1992 On Paper, Lieberman & Saul Gallery, New York, NY 1991 Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, NY 1988 International Sculpture Center, Washington, D.C. 1987 One Penn Plaza, Penn Plaza, New York, New York
1985 Getler, Paul, Sapir Gallery, New York, NY ​ 1984 Drawings, Barbara Toll Gallery, New York, NY Tom Kendall Gallery, New York, NY 1983 Art on Paper, Weatherspoon Art Gallery, Greensboro, NC 1983 Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 1982 Acquisitions: Works on Paper, The Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY 3:1, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, NY 1981 Recent Abstraction, Bard College, Annandale on Hudson, NY Thomson/ Pondick, Art Galaxy, New York, NY Summer News, Droll/Kolbert Gallery, New York, NY Drawings for the Serious Collector, Guild Hall, East Hampton, NY 1980 Two Dimensions, Guilford College, Greensboro, NC AWARDS National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, 1991-1992 SELECTED COLLECTIONS Albright-Knox Art Gallery Richard Armstrong Centro Culturale, Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City Chase Manhattan Bank Chemical Bank Equitable Life Assurance Society Grey Art Gallery, New York University M & T Bank National Madison Group Weatherspoon Art Gallery Wilkie, Farr & Gallagher
BIBLIOGRAPHY “Chelsea is a Battlefield, Galleries Muster Groups,” Roberta Smith, The New York Times, July 28, 2006 p. 27/33. “This Way.. That Way,” Mario Naves, The New York Observer, July 23, 2006. Image, The New York Sun, July 19, 2006 p. 14. “Ship Shape,” Pilar Viladas, New York Times Magazine, July 26, 1998 pp. 38-39. “Between Artists,” A.R.T. Press, 12 Contemporary American Artists, 1996 pp. 241-249. “Andrew Spence Interviewed by Colin Thomson,” A.R.T. Press, 1992 pp. 1-46. Justin Spring, Review, Art Forum, Summer 1991 p. 113. Elizabeth Licata, “The Other Side of Summer,” The Buffalo News, July 5, 1991 p. 27. Richard Huntington, Review, The Buffalo News, May 6, 1988 p. 24. Richard Huntington, Review, The Buffalo News, June 9, 1987 p. 11. William Wilson, Review, The Los Angeles Times, June 24, 1983 Section 4, p. 10. “Modern Works on Paper,” Albright-Knox Newsletter, March 1983 p. 1. Virginia Butera, Review, Arts Magazine, April 1982 p. 17. Ruth Bass, Review, Art News, April/May 1982 p. 168. Carrie Rickey, Centerfold, The Village Voice, June 23, 1980.
Colin Thomson | Unusual Characters March 5 - April 12, 2020 Edition of 100
Publisher © 2020 Jared Linge HIGH NOON GALLERY
Art © 2018 - 2020 Colin Thomson Text © 2020 Saul Ostrow Phtography © Jeff Sturges
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cover (detail): Riding School, 2019, oil on canvas, 24” x 52”