Spencer Finch
Sky Over the Ikarian Sea,
1996
© ArtNet Worldwide 1997
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david ebony's
new york top ten
Spencer Finch
at Postmasters
Jan. 4-Feb. 8, 1997
In this show, conceptualist Spencer Finch presents paintings
and works on paper that are a continuation of his witty
experiments in perception. In the large room at Postmasters, he
hung one of the most striking painting shows of the season. A
series of seven, approximately 6-foot-long oval-shaped
encaustic paintings (an elliptical format which the artist says is
based on John Ruskin's study of the human field of vision)
lined the walls of the gallery.
Titled, Sky Over the Ikarian Sea I-VII, the series is based on
sketches Finch made from a small airplane flying over Greece's
Ikarian Sea. The seascapes are painted from the vantage point
of airborne Icarus, whose wax-fitted wings melted as he flew
too near the sun. These encaustic paintings chronicle his
plummet to the sea. Separating turquoise sea from purple sky,
the horizon lines shift and seem to rotate from one image to
another. They seem to transport one to a distant place and
time. In his work, Finch, whose name, of course, is also that of
a bird, plays the part of Icarus, and this series suggests a
metaphor for artistic ambition. Finch revitalizes the myth as he
reenacts it by means of these luminous paintings.
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