The Artists "Review" Artists Project was launched on June 30, 2008. Below is a "review" of Rob Hitzig's work, 126, written by Timothy Buckwalter. Rob provided the second jpeg, an image of Castleris vermontensis, as well as a brief response to Timothy's "review."
Rob currently resides in Montpelier, VT, and Timothy lives in the San Francisco Bay area, CA.
If you would like to participate in this project, please email me at jtkirkland [at] gmail [dot] com.
126
bird's-eye maple, cherry, tinted shellac
25" x 23" x 3/4"
2008
The "Review"
You want a cheap date? Mix me a cocktail of some gestural abstration. Follow that up with jello-shot of hard-edge. And I'm yours for the evening.
I'm a huge fan of hard-edge painting. Karl Benjamin. Gene Davis. John McLaughlin. Helen Lundeberg,
There is something absolute, something sure-handed, about hard-edge that gets me pretty much every time.
The evolution of hard-edge in the last two and a half decades also rocks my boat (how could it not be? When I fall head-over-heels for a band, I fall in love with everything that sounds like it, hoping to recapture that same feeling). Peter Halley's references to the now of computers and networking make me go gah-gah. Olivier Mosset's continued radical-ness is mind-numbing.
So, when I initially opened the file, it was easy for me to like 126.
A connection could be made between hard-edge and craft by the artist's use of the stolid woods as strips of color. The tinted shellac tosses a sleazy element of fetish into the mix.
With dimensions that mimic a larger cutting board, the piece can also slide you into the arena of consumer commentary. There's a certain Williams Sonoma-ish feel to it.
The problem is my positive glow ends right there.
Because I don't know what goes on with the sides of the piece the original intention is hidden from view. Is the wood a laminate that is laid on a panel, mounted on stables – a kind of ironic comment on painting, that mimics some of paintings effort will upping certain accepted falsehoods of the art. Or is merely slabs of hard wood glued together into a square, mounted on the wall – a more earnest bit that nods toward the world of craft.
Castleris vermontensis
maple, epoxy, metal, shellac
32" x 12" x 9"
2007
The Response
By Rob Hitzig
Previous "Reviews":
Pam Farrell on Ken Weathersby
Paula McCullough on Aric Calfee
Lee Gainer on Leigh Waldron-Taylor
Aric Calfee on Paula McCullough
Matthew Ballou on Heather Levy
Giovanni Garcia-Fenech on TJ Norris
TJ Norris on Giovanni Garcia-Fenech
Susan Tolbert on Mary Klein
Heather Levy on Gail Vollrath
Sharon Butler on Matthew Ballou
Mark L. Power on Steven Alexander
Steven Alexander on Mark L. Power
Molly Norris on M. Trigos
Ken Weathersby on Joseph Barbaccia
Sondra Arkin on Susan Tolbert
John M. Adams on Sharon Butler
Michael Paul Oman-Reagan on Brent Hallard
Daniel Mafe on Pam Farrell
Joanna Knox on John M. Adams
John Lucien Grillo on Joanna Knox
Brent Hallard on Lisa Klow
Joseph Barbaccia on John Lucien Grillo
M. Trigos on Michael Paul Oman-Reagan
Mary Klein on Imants Ozers
Richard Schemmerer on Michael Konrad
Michael Konrad on Richard Schemmerer
Jennifer Mawby on Lee Gainer
Lisa Klow on Molly Norris
Bob Barbera on Jenn Figg
Tom Wagner on Kimberley L. Lindsley
Michelle Hunter on Aaron McMasters
Gail Vollrath on Daniel Mafe
Aaron McMasters on Michelle Hunter
Demetrius Romanos on Chris Rywalt
Chris Rywalt on Demetrius Romanos
Imants Ozers on Sondra Arkin
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