artist
Resika once said that his paintings were never "of something; rather they are something - paintings that have their own very independent existence from the landscape they imagine." A student of Hans Hofmann and his famed theory of color and with his first solo show at the George Dix Gallery in New York at the tender age of just nineteen, Paul Resika is known as an artist who always followed his own unique path. Resika was associated with the second generation of Abstract Expressionist artists in New York City who sought to meld the gestural emphasis and emotional immediacy of the Expressionists with their own representational subject matter. Resika's work succeeds in seamlessly incorporating the abstract and the figurative within the context of a highly keyed color palette.
Description
Blue Tree, 1993-4 is a boldly hued and powerful work depicting a solid and simple stucco house against which is placed a distinctively and vibrantly painted blue tree. This picture was potentially executed while Resika was living in Tepotzotlan, Mexico or at least painted from his memories of having lived there. One can palpably feel the warmth of the Mexican climate with its vibrantly hued and Fauvist inspired colors that are strikingly played against his geometric forms and light filled canvas. Resika was once quoted as saying he strives to capture “a feeling for nature but without nature”. Perhaps what he does do is to create poetry with a brush.
provenance
Carroll O'Connor
Salander-O'Reilly, New York
