Stanley Boxer

(From the left: Stanley Boxer, Sosoughtbloomnaught, 1976; Frederick J. Brown, Jacques Lipchitz, 1992-1993; John Opper, Untitled (#16), 1969; Stanley Boxer, Softlashtendercombs, 1976)

"Throughout the room, anniversary collection fabric, carpet and furniture frames came together in signature Young Huh style. The designer and her team debuted the iconic Tree of Life pattern as a wallcovering. Artwork from Berry Campbell, fireplace accessories from Chesneys and florals from Diane James Home completed the luxe ambiance." - continue reading

Though I've reviewed the paintings of Stanley Boxer (1926 – 2000) many times, mostly it has been his work from the '80s and '90s that I discussed, the pictures covered with glittering, glistering accretions of matière. Only occasionally have I glanced at let alone reviewed his work from the early 1970s, but these are the paintings now featured in "Stanley Boxer: The Ribbon Paintings (1971- 1976)" at Berry Campbell in Chelsea (through December 23).  And they form a wonderful chapter in pure painting.

Born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Boxer served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and then studied art at the Art Students League on the G. I. Bill of Rights.  He exhibited at various Manhattan galleries from 1953 onward.  Still, it doesn't seem to have been until he arrived at Tibor de Nagy in 1971 that some observers began calling him a color-field painter (a designation he always denied, scorning affiliation with any group at all).

According to the brochure essay to the present show by Lisa N. Peters, immediately before 1971, Boxer had been making collages with strips of canvas.   A half-way stage may be seen in two of the earlier pictures in this show, most notably "Willowsnowpond" (1972).  This good-sized horizontal oil on linen depicts a few totally opaque matte bands of  beige wiggling across the perimeters of an equally opaque matte field of dark brown.

Still, other paintings done earlier already boast of more transparent --- and painterly -- layers of paint. "Warmfield" (1971), another and larger square oil on linen, has just such a luminous field of medium green, near whose perimeters stroll vertical arched bands of mustard, olive – and a horizontal one of mauve.

There is something very friendly about these paintings: they do not insist; they invite. And particularly this may be seen by the latest and often largest paintings ranged at the front of the gallery and hung near its entrance, with their loose and ever-more-transparent fields of paint.

To be honest, the subtlety of the brushwork in this series of paintings makes them particularly difficult to appreciate in reproduction.  However, the range of tonalities can at least be listed by this correspondent in three cases.

First is the "overmantel" hung above the reception desk. It is titled (in Boxer's characteristic seriocomic portmanteau style) "Seagustglories" (1974), and is a horizontal oil on linen with three horizontal bands, respectively of ocher, lime and mint.

Second is the very tall and narrow "Sunbraid" (1973), also an oil on linen (though there are a few oils on canvas in this show). Hung in the first main gallery space, with its back to the reception desk, "Sunbraid" has a field of mixed orange and lime, upon which is superimposed a soaring, narrow vertical black wiggly line that makes me think of a bird in flight.

Finally and most impressively is "Rainnights" (1973), a large, nearly square vertical oil on linen whose field is a wonderfully mottled raspberry ice. Arched over this field on the top and right-hand side of the canvas wanders a long orange line, while anchoring down the lower left corner are a few short horizontal lines like twigs in cool blues and greens. 

If this isn't a very fresh and different kind of color-field painting, it's a kissing cousin to it – so affectionate it is.

In an interview in BOMB magazine a few years ago, artist James Little declared, “I choose to be abstract because that’s where I found my voice, because it best reflects my self-determination and free will. That’s why I love abstraction, it forces us to see things in a different way. It forces us to come out of what we have been trained and conditioned to see. It forces us to use another part of our brain.”

Little’s love for abstract art is now literally on display at the Art Students League, where he is also an instructor. Titled “New York-Centric,” it is an exhibition curated by Little that will run through May 1. As described in promotional materials from the 144 year old institution, “New York-Centric” is, “An exhibition dedicated to color, color theory, design, expressionism. All of the work on display was produced in New York during the latter half of the 20th century or the beginning of the 21st century.”

A fair number of people by this time must know that I greatly admire the mostly-mixed- media abstract paintings of Stanley Boxer.  Since I started posting at this website, I’ve discussed his work four times, most recently and at greatest length when he showed at Spanierman Modern in 2012. Before then – around 2009, I believe – I dealt at even greater length in reviewing his retrospective that premiered in Richmond, Virginia and went on to tour in New England and Florida.

I am happy to report that his recent show at Berry Campbell (closed May 21) carried on his unique gifts with many more pleasures. 

Painter Stanley Boxer used the term “manufacture” to describe his process. His late-period paintings currently on view at Berry Campbell Gallery demonstrate this notion of assemblage remarkably well. His abstractions integrate raw materials into a polished whole, all the while retaining evidence of painting as pure, manual labor.

Boxer’s body of work gives renewed meaning to what used to be called “all-over painting.” Employing multiple brushwork techniques within any single painting, Boxer crams his surfaces with impastos, drips, dabs, washes, and three dimensional objects, foregrounding both the serene and frictional properties of painting. Embedded materials such as sawdust, stones, glitter, twine, and netting produce mysterious depths within the thick, textured, melted and bleeding color.