27 Nov 2020

Ronnie Landfield: Concurrence

Findlay Galleries

Reviewed by Dana Gordon

Ronnie Landfield, one of the greatest living painters, comes out of the color field milieu of New York in the 1960s and maintains its fervent artistic purity. In his work no academic or political theory interferes with the soul's straightforward and age-old expression through art. Free from preconceived ideas of what and how to paint, he finds beauty in color and form, with love and generosity. Upholding the autonomous and emotive powers of painting, Landfield offers experience both deep and uplifting.

There is something else here. These abstract compositions look like landscapes and skies as seen by the artist. With this, his saturated colorism brings to mind the avant-gardes of the 19th century. But his works don't suffer the modern accommodations of landscape paintings heightened by abstract form, or of abstractions eased up by landscape references. Landfields are both abstractions and landscapes of the highest intensity, separately and at the same time, in the same space. This is unique.