Pat Steir - Paintings

For the first time, the Gagosian Gallery hosts the exhibition of the famous American painter who returns to exhibit in the Capital after about twenty years.

On display is a series of new and recent works that deepen the colour experimentation that the eclectic contemporary artist already catalyzed in the ambitious 2019 Color Wheel project, thirty large-scale paintings exploring binary colour dynamics. Warm tones with layered spills of orange, yellow and blue on a glowing red background: Roman Rainbow (2021–22), created especially for the occasion, evokes the sensations of Rome, a city holding many memories for Steir; whereas violet, orange and green on a vibrant blue background characterize the contrasting Small Rainbow (2021–22). Red Pour, Yellow Pour and Blue Pour are the tall, vertical paintings with a black ground and a single column of saturated primary colour, with which the painter responds to Barnett Newman's polemical series Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue (1966–70 ).

On display are also works in elemental white and black: from One Afternoon (2021–22), in which a cascade fills the entire canvas with light and movement, to Raindrop (2020), with tiers of paint falls, spaced in a rhythmic sequence, and Night (2021–22), a dark and wide expanse inhabited by ghostly rivulets falling from a single linear interval, an interpretation that the iconic painter recalls and accentuates in the two polychromatic works Winter Evening (2021–22), with electric harmonies of orange, lavender, blue and red, and Winter Daylight (2021–22), with streaming bands and multicoloured layers.

During her remarkable career, the artist from Newark developed techniques for pouring, spraying and brushing thinned paint onto canvas, often creating works at a monumental scale. Her paintings are exhibited in some of the most prestigious museums in the world, such as the Museé du Louvre in Paris, the Tate Modern in London, the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden of Washington.

Photo: Pat Steir, Roman Rainbow, 2021-22, oil on canvas, 274,3 x 274,3 cm © Pat Steir, Photo Elisabeth Bernstein, detail