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Artbeat
Criswell's newest works dazzle
By Ellis Widner
This article was published Sept. 24 at 1:57 a.m.
It has been two years since a sizable showing
of works by Warren Criswell, one of our region's best painters,
has appeared in central Arkansas.
So his participation in "New Works," a four-artist
show with Steve Adair, Robin Tucker and Bryan Frazier at Little
Rock's M2 Gallery, is particularly welcome. Criswell's sizable
portion of the exhibition -- more than 35 works hanging and more
on hand -- is a heady mix of dazzling new pieces, familiar older
works that have gained
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Warren Criswell's
oil on canvas paintings is titled Half-Finished Hell. |
power
and continue to haunt the viewer, and a sizable assortment
of very cool lino cuts, drawings and some very early watercolors.
It almost feels like a retrospective.
The last large showing of Criswell's work in central Arkansas
was "Disparate Acts Redux" with Sammy Peters and David
Bailin at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies in 2015. (He
participated in a show with Neal and Tammy Harrington in February
2016 at the Arts Center of the Ozarks in Springdale.)
The ingredients that distinguish his best works are in abundance
at M2: folklore, mythology, Jungian archetypes; works inspired
by classical music and opera. Social commentary, dystopian scenes,
the complexity of relationships and mundane objects such as a
roll of toilet paper all have their place here. And, of course,
the artist also figures prominently in many of these works.
It's wonderful to see Aristeas again, a powerful 1996 work based
on the story of the Greek poet Aristeas from the seventh century
B.C., who was thought dead until he reappeared, telling people
he had been traveling with the god Apollo as a sacred raven.
In this oil on hardwood, a man lies on the beach, a raven emerging
from his gaping mouth. In the stunning, 54-by-36 inch Tango, a couple dance near the entrance
of a large cave near a giant dead raven. The 1996 work is an
oil and beeswax on plywood.
Criswell's recent works have made pre-exhibition appearances
on Facebook and Instagram, but those internet sites don't do
the art justice. They need to be seen in person.
Autumn Leaves is a subtle, superbly executed
watercolor with collage. The perspective plays with the viewer;
it is as though we are in the water and the leaves are floating
through the reflections of the trees. It's touched with a melancholic
surrealism, suffused with pastoral mysticism.
Criswell takes an even bigger step with Half-Finished Hell, a 30-by-40 inch oil
on canvas. Inspired by the poem "The Half-Finished Heaven"
by Swedish Nobel laureate Tomas Transtromer, the watery reflection
is perhaps a scrying of a dystopian future of our planet. In
the water, we see Earth, its coasts altered by rising sea levels,
the land ablaze (recalling satellite-photographed images of wildfires)
and a hurricane in the planet's ocean. (Criswell says the figures
at the top slinking away were inspired by Hieronymus Bosch's
Wayfarer.) One can easily connect this piece's power to human
neglect; a half-finished transformation of heaven on Earth into
hell. Or many other interpretations. A copy of the poem is posted
alongside the painting.
Other new works include Artist & Model 10: Interior With Green Moon,
an oil on linen that plays with perspective as the artist's model
drifts away from him and he is blinded by the moon. It speaks
to artistic vision and the muse as well as relationships. The Miraculous Mandarin, an oil on panel
based on Bela Bartok's 1926 mime ballet, depicts the aftermath
of an attempted murder. A Chinese man is lured into a room by
a dancing woman, is jumped by three men who try -- and fail --
to kill him. The men are startled as the intended victim begins
to glow.
The wistful and soulful Ghosts,
a 23-by-30 inch watercolor, is also available as a smaller limited
print. The 2017 work depicts two people -- Criswell says it is
he and his wife -- taking their last walk together.
Criswell isn't one to rest on past achievements. As his new paintings
show, he is still searching, still wrestling with his muse, still
pushing himself forward.
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Excerpted from a review in Artbeat, Style Section, page 2E, in
the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Sunday, Sept. 24 2017, copyright
© 2017
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette |
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