NEW YORK, NY.- Driscoll Babcock Galleries presents Alan Gussow: Cold Elation – works from the 1970s, a pivotal moment in the formal development of Gussow’s nearly 50 year career. Embracing the two dimensional surface plane of the canvas, Gussow applied paint in thin stitch-like strokes. These calligraphic marks register his personal sensations, elegantly reducing natural forms to a basic visual abstraction.

Gussow reflected that “prior to 1972, I was looking at scenery. Now I am in the environment, part of it. Scenery is a convention. I’m not painting objects, I’m describing a process. I have stepped through the scene to go inside it.” Works such as STEPS IN SNOW emphasize this – the rhythmic markings do not portray actual footsteps, rather they conjure the texture, sounds and sensations experienced during a winter’s day walk. In the painting COLD ELATION, the canvas vibrates with a crisp energy, a remarkable expression of exultation emanating from energetic abstract lines.

Beginning in the early 1970’s Gussow utilized works on paper to both experiment with linear expression and to create calligraphic works derived from nature. Monochromatic works on paper such as THE FAR FIELD demonstrated his quick confidence with hard edge horizontal mark making, and allowed him to work and play with the effects of differing lengths of strokes. The results are graphically striking as the eye first feels, then perceives order and patterns within his cogent images.

While graphic and geometric in scope, these works continue to connect with the artist’s very personal and life-long interest in the natural environment. An avid environmental activist until his death, Gussow played an integral role in preventing a proposed Con Edison plant from destroying Storm King Mountain in the Hudson River Valley. He advised Robert F. Kennedy and George McGovern on key environmental issues and as a consultant for the National Park Service, he conceived of and inaugurated the first Artist in Residence program for the National Park Service.

Gussow was instrumental in focusing on painted perceptual experiences of nature rather than representations. The geometry of his imagery is enlivened by his organic sense of linear arrangements.
Alan