CHANDLER: Ary Stillman's journey through life, art

By Mary Voelz Chandler, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published January 29, 2009 at 7 p.m.

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Ary Stillman's 1948 oil on canvas Gold and Blue, part of the Play of Light show at the Singer Gallery.

Ary Stillman's 1940 oil on canvas Janitzio, part of the Play of Light show at the Singer Gallery.

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Into every season something mysterious drops, an exhibition or event that is not just unexpected but apparently related to nothing at all swimming through the current discourse of ideas.

And so we now have "Ary Stillman: Play of Light," a show at the Singer Gallery of ever-shifting paintings and works on paper with the subtitle "The Journey of an American Modernist."

That phrase sums up the universal nature of this little- known artist. Stillman traveled widely. He was born in 1891 in Belarus and educated in Russia, immigrated to Sioux City, Iowa, and rooted in New York. He soaked up influences on a body of work that itself traveled from the fringes of Impressionism to full-blown Abstract Expressionism. He died in 1967.

Stillman's life reads like a giant sponge, especially in his approach to the symbolism found in Mexico and Central America. It's a visual language that fills a large section of the work on view here.

Gallery director Simon Zalkind discovered Stillman when he encountered a book on the artist's life, a book that led him to the Stillman-Lack Foundation in Atlanta - and a trove of work.

What is on view at Singer is a selection pulled from various periods and, for the most part, presented in chronological order. It opens with a self-portrait of the artist, reflected in a mirror as he paints; objects under the mirror render this into a still life, too. It dates from 1942.

"Play of Light" then moves back through Stillman's early portraiture to New York views to two small but fine paintings he made as one of many artists working for the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project. These oils - Coney Island, Three Horses from 1936 and World's Fair from 1940 - show a turn toward the of-the-people genre scenes favored during that program, though the latter depicts people examining paintings at an art display.

From there, Stillman's evolution begins to become clear. There are scenes drawn from his travels to Mexico, including the 1940 Janitzio, and paintings that stand out for his inclusion of calligraphic elements.

One wall is covered by works in which he experimented in geometric shapes by inscribing them with a stylus or some such implement, then rubbing charcoal or pastel over to create a dark ground and white lines.

Another high point is the fully realized abstraction of Gold and Blue, made in 1948 as Abstract Expression became a full-blown bid for American art mastery. This complex composition, with its sense of vivid action held together by suggested borders, sums up Stillman's sure footing in the era.

Perhaps most telling is the work hung on the wedge wall at the gallery's center, numerous pieces from the early 1960s in which Stillman turns to symbols to emphasize the importance of the line as both structural element and singular object.

Aside from displaying samples of the arc of an artist's career, "Play of Light" is a lesson in discovery. Stillman exhibited widely over the years and asked that at his death a foundation be formed to shelter and present his work.

What a smart move. And how smart that this organization is doing its job, as is gallery director Zalkind, by introducing an artist to new eyes, and new examination.

Mary Chandler is the art and architecture critic. chandlerm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2677

Ary Stillman: Play of Light

* What: Exhibition of work marking Stillman's move from Impressionism to abstraction

* Where and when: Singer Gallery, Mizel Arts & Culture Center, 350 S. Dahlia St.; through March 10

* Of note: Opening reception 6:30 to 9 p.m. Saturday, with a talk at 8 p.m. by educator and critic Donald Kuspit on "Making an Emotional Difference: The Art of Ary Stillman"

* Information: 303-316-6360; maccjcc.org

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