13 Dec 2017

Perle Fine/Marguerite Louppe: New York/Paris

Freedman Gallery, Albright College

Reviewed by Rose-Carol Washton Long

The pairing of the painters Perle Fine and Marguerite Louppe opens corresponding windows on two vibrant art scenes of the 20th century: New York's AbEx, and Paris from the 1930s to the '60s. They were remarkable colorists, Louppe with her geometric, purist landscapes and still lifes in rich earth tones, and Fine with her luminous Prescience series.

They should have been highly regarded in their day but the show doesn't dwell on absence. Instead the careful hanging allows each artist to sing with her own voice, promoting a superb interaction. Louppe's 1958 gouache sketches for posters for Galerie Drouet are fresh, lighthearted interpretations of Cubism. Fine's Collage #2 (1965) is a transformative investigation of the movement from abstract to symbolic. Both chose to innovate within the parameters of their milieu. The show presents their independent but similarly passionate and meticulous processes to great advantage.