PYRO Gallery
Review by Keith Waits
Entire contents are
copyright © 2013 Keith Waits. All rights reserved.
After a period working in
entirely abstract digital compositions, artist Keith Auerbach has reacquired
the representational, after a fashion. There is a studied, analytical quality
to his work currently on exhibit at PYRO Gallery. A sensitivity to human
experience was a defining characteristic of his earlier Cartier-Bresson
inspired photographs: a sense of humor and playfulness always a feature of his
observational eye; but the abstract compositions that have overtaken his
artistic sensibility still capture the psychological complexity of human
understanding.
 |
| Gutenberg Book, archival inkjet print, 2012. |
Now the artist has dropped
the camera altogether, at least for the time being. His source images are
digital scans of manuscript pages from several sources, pages of music, a
geometry text and, most notably, rare editions of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables dated 1860, and a 15th Century
manuscript thought to have originated with the Medici family. Verbiage from the
pages is visible and even at times legible, although the meaning of the text is
limited to providing an identifier of the narrative contained therein. The
viewer can discern the name of Hugo’s famous hero, “Jean Valjean,” but any
theme or action in the narrative seems to be largely irrelevant to Mr.
Auerbach’s intentions. He again uses the images as a basic supply with which to
explore shape, movement and texture through digital constructions that use
state-of-the-art technology to now conjure more traditional associations.
 |
| Gutenberg Book pages - 2 |
Mr. Auerbach’s previous bodies
of work were much more abstract and characterized by vivid color and organic
shapes. Now he has reintroduced representational elements and, for the most
part, restricted his color palette to a mostly monochromatic and analogous
range of warm, natural tones that echo the aged patina of the pages. A few of
the pieces share some of the amorphous shapes of the previous generation of
digital abstracts, but the strongest work here takes a different direction. Instead
of a riot of splattered, organic forms, the compositions are constructed from
severely geometric shapes and repetitive structures. These range from the
simple and elegant spirals of kinetic angles that result in the leg-like shapes
of “Gut Dance,” to the almost overwhelmingly dense texture of “Gutenberg Book.”
The latter image consists of scans of each end of the fragile volume – two
similar but distinct visual components that are repeated in a format so tight
that it creates visual layers of form and texture, fashioning an abstraction
from the representational.
 |
| Les Miserables - The Derrick, archival inkjet print, 2012. |
Dimensionality is largely
absent, although the exhaustive layering of scans build up considerable depth,
and at least one example, “Les Miserables–1,” is characterized by a 3-D effect,
as if the pages had been “pinched” by a human hand to form bloom-like contours.
A few pieces utilize the manipulated scans as elements on long, vertical paper
that intentionally connote Japanese scrolls; and others organize the
aforementioned shapes into overt facsimiles of Asian characters. Taken together
with the visual quality of papyrus or rice paper emulated, perhaps
unconsciously, by much of the work, the Asian elements join with Gutenberg
(German) printing and Victor Hugo (French), and the connection to other
cultures is complete.
The range of format and
compositional structures reveals the curiosity and enthusiasm for process that
leads the artist in the development of this work, yet there is a variation in
the impact through the course of viewing the large volume of work. All are
fascinating, but the strongest among them are not merely exercises but
mysterious and suggestive of things of which perhaps even the artist is not
always cognizant. Like any good archeologist, Mr. Auerbach is excavating deeper
understanding than the pleasures of form and texture.
The overall impact is a
merging of modern technology with a sensibility tied to the past. Not a
nostalgia, rather something more archealogical, as if Mr. Auerbach’s playful
approach to his digital manipulation has suddenly unearthed an ancient
sarcophagus filled with knowledge of a civilization vanished from the earth’s
face. The modern, digital voice speaks to the aged, decaying voice of the
antique printed page.
The Next Call: LetterForms
February 21 - March 30, 2013
PYRO Gallery
909 East Market St.
Louisville, KY 40202
502-587-0106
Thursday-Saturday, 12-6 p.m.
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