Elizabeth Murray and Betty Woodman: Charting Paths in Formalism at David Kordansky Gallery

This week's highlight is a recap of David Kordansky Gallery's exhibition over the last weekend. Elizabeth Murray (1940 - 2007) and Betty Woodman (1930 - 2018) were exceptional colorists who created abstract works that utilized eccentric shapes and patterns to explore the relationships between composing in two and three dimensional spaces. They experimented with hybrid forms. [Read on]

For example, Murray's canvases were hardly ever just rectangles and Woodman's ceramics often included a painted element mounted on the wall. Both women were known for layering geometric and organic forms to build their complex, nuanced, and idiosyncratic pieces.

The exhibition unfolds like a conversation or a dialectic as the viewer contemplates the relationships between the works. Within two modest sized spaces are paintings and sculptures spanning the years 1982-2015. Installed to highlight formal relationships (and not chronologically), the eye zig-zags across the walls, at first taking in all of Murray's large bombastic painted reliefs, then scanning Woodman's more delicate, freestanding and wall-based ceramics, before eventually honing in on where they intersect. Is it through texture? Color? Shape? Or the fracturing of surfaces?

2.B.! (1990) by Murray hangs next to Woodman's Reaching (2012). 2.B.! is a three-dimensional oil where Murray collages together cut-out canvases that form a backwards "B," a reversed number "2," and a bright pink exclamation point. The work takes its point of departure from the graffiti lettering that covered the walls and subway cars of New York in the 1980s and 1990s. It also references the speech in Shakespeare's Hamlet where the words "to be, or not to be" are spoken. In Reaching, Woodman adheres flat fragments of curvilinear earthenware glazed in white, red and black to a canvas painted with an array of subtly colored concentric rectangles. The orange lines that fill the "B" are similar to the black lines of glaze in Woodman's ceramic shapes.

Another notable relationship transpires between Woodman's Balustrade Relief Vase: 96-20 (1996), and Murray's Midnight Special (2000), installed across the wall from one another. In Balustrade Relief Vase, Woodman breaks apart vase forms and assembles the varied pieces on the wall. The shapes appear to dance as the viewer tries to reconstruct the object. Murray's large painting Midnight Special shares a similar palette to Woodman's ceramic deconstruction, as well as its spirited light-hearted composition. Murray's work is filled with intestine-like shapes that encircle her oval canvases.

Elizabeth Murray, Moonbeam, 1995 - 1996, oil, canvas, and wood, 109 x 63 x 6 inches. Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery and the artist

Betty Woodman, Santa Barbara, 2005, glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, paint, and canvas ,95 1/4 x 84 3/4 x 9 inches. Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery and the artist

Murray's Moonbeam (1995-1996) and Woodman's Santa Barbara (2005) use different subject matter while engaging in a compelling dialogue. In Moonbeam, Murray brings the outside in. Her paintings often depict abstractions of domestic interiors and this one is essentially a bed with two pillows that twist and turn in on themselves. The bedposts curve into the painting and hover over the pillows as collaged elements. A painted green-yellow line that cuts diagonally across the composition is the moonbeam of the title. Like many of Woodman's other pieces, Santa Barbara is a combination of painting and ceramics. In this work, she depicts a quasi-interior space. A light blue and pink painted backdrop is bisected by a washy black horizontal band. In front of this is a ceramic vessel in two parts from which emerges swirling fragments that boil to the top of the wall. Looking at one work and then the other, one sees spectacular formal similarities, especially in both artists' use of shape and color.

At work are forces drawn from Cubism and Abstract Expressionism as both women were interested in breaking things apart and putting them together anew. They reimagined traditional art mediums, never denying their interests in formalism while pushing boundaries and often exploring the relationship between the artwork and its placement. The blurring of positive/negative space and traditional figure/ground relationships were key to both artists' practices. While never denying their femininity, they created large, extravagant works filled with vigor and energy, as well as an undeniable delicacy and intimacy. Both employed abstract language, delighting in visual pleasures, and were dedicated to their chosen media while rebuffing accepted aesthetic norms, opting to chart their own paths. Seeing their works together allows for a conversation that examines similarities and differences in themes and approaches pertinent to both artists. The comparison is enriching.

If you've missd this exhibition, read Jody Zellen’s full review on What’s on LA

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