Opinion: Connie Fox's Vivid Paintings

On view at the Brenda Taylor Gallery, 529 West 20th Street, New York, through Sunday, the exhibit of 11 large-scale paintings by Connie Fox is packed with activity and color.

These paintings bristle with contesting patterns and even aesthetics. The goal seems to be a happy, fruitful jumble, and these winsome pictures invite us to enjoy the results. All the works by the longtime East Hampton resident are acrylic on canvas and date from 1994 to 1997.

What first comes to mind, on seeing the first painting, sensitively installed and lighted in Taylor's smashing new Chelsea space, is the 1970s - that firebrand era when everything was thrown in, just after it had all been carefully, methodically re moved. We remember Malcolm Morley and his use of strong tonal juxtapositions, as well as his combining of abstract and figurative elements.

Receding Planes

In "Skin" (1977, 78 inches by 84 inches), the entry painting, we are made aware of overlapping grounds, specified by at least four receding planes, each of which could be a finished painting in itself, in other hands.

The foremost panel makes use of earth tones, blended in a painterly manner, punctuated by dabs of pure vermilion. An elliptical form, painted in cerulean blue, hovers as the prime subject, a featureless face.

Just behind this panel is another in a Kelly green which has been almost completely painted over by languid, impastoed strokes of gold. In the upper right corner of this panel, Ms. Fox has scratched in two pictograms - a house, perhaps, and a face-like design.

Points Of Reference

This gives a sampling of the density and the playfulness in Ms. Fox's paintings, and it accounts for only about a third of this painting's surface. Elsewhere, sly, indecipherable figures are glibly drawn in paint, while a thickly painted blue-and-white striped post gives a realistic hint, like a railway crossing barrier, casually dropped into the painting and extending beyond its frame on two sides.

In several paintings, Ms. Fox makes use of a gridded ladder - or folding chair-like form, lightly painted in outline.

It should be clear by now that none of these "things" to which I am referring is actually defined by Ms. Fox. Rather, they are glimmers of imagined recognition the eye gratefully latches onto as resting places or points of reference, since Ms. Fox's compositions and huddled masses of color can sometimes be jarring and disconcerting.

Thrust Of Color

Her canvases reward close inspection. Her technique is fluent and, more to the point, vital. Every mark or scrape has a reason for being.

What is most impressive about her paintings is the range of textures and densities she is able to coax out of the acrylic medium. There are the familiar, watery, cool tones we expect from acrylic, but there are also thickly laden, drenched areas, like tarry buildup or the right-handed density of oil painting.

When she throws these different approaches into conflict, exciting conflagrations occur. In the upper right corner of "Rogue" (1997, 80 inches by 72 inches), for example, a coolly painted sequence of rectilinear forms is disrupted by a splayed thrust of blue and white strokes right on top of and through the rectangles.

Loves To Paint

On the large-scale level, Ms. Fox attempts different compositional gambits. "Quarter Round" divides the canvas into four quadrants; "Postage Due" contains a centrally located rectangle within a widely ranging mass of thick strokes; "Oda al Secreto Amor" has a large, carved shape like a mirror frame, and "Viajero, ven conmigo" frames a white starburst, nestled on a table-like slab, between two white columns.

Perhaps the most successful piece compositionally is "Ricochet" (1996, 78 inches by 84 inches), in which the shapes and areas simply evolve, organically shifting from one to another, held in place by a cascading flood of Ms. Fox's favorite ladder-forms.

Ms. Fox is excellent on the small scale, on transitions, accumulations. Her range of touches is inspiring. Her overall conceptions can seem a little flat, as though mere contrivances designed to allow her to do what she likes most - to paint. For her love of the medium and her mastery in moving it around, this exhibit is highly recommended.