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Judy Glantzman at Betty Cuningham
Art in America, Jan, 2007 by Michael Duncan
For Judy Glantzman, now in mid-career, figuration is a kind of imperative. In her latest, exuberant oil paintings, tiny heads are arranged in dense clusters, stacks, rows and daisy chains, their sheer multiplicity distinguishing them from portraiture yet freeing her to make psychologically and sociologically rich statements about human experience and interaction. Glantzman has long successfully navigated the turbulent waters of expressionism, but her latest work demonstrates an ambition and confidence beyond her previous efforts.
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In the large (90-by-80-inch) canvas Bird in the Hand (2006), a constellation of various-sized heads held up above a dark violet sea by a larger figure with multiple hands would seem to symbolize a struggle to grasp and sustain the various pressures at play in daily existence. Similarly, the smaller (36-by-36-inch) She Juggles (2006) shows an aproned woman somewhat overwhelmed by her role as nurturer and facilitator. Glantzman's work is, however, far from didactic. Her painting style, with fraught brushwork, masterfully sketchy drawing and scumbled passages, seems spontaneous, emotionally charged in the modes of Ensor and Bacon. Her loaded images convey raw feelings.
An untitled work from 2005 takes the form of a haloed purple Madonna or female saint wearing a veil strung with beads of little heads. Surrounding her as if to overtake her are numbers of somber, needy-looking faces painted in translucent layers. The elements in another untitled painting from 2004 are loosely arranged in the shape of a crucifix. A large face with a single piercing deep blue eye is placed near the top of the cross, and its arms are garlanded with rosettes of visages. At the center is a startling lemon-yellow cluster of heads that pops out in contrast to the work's lush black background.
The exhibition also included recent small sculptures of grotesque figures made from Model Magic and Super Sculpey. Stumpy and comically deformed, the nine raw, unpainted Model Magic creatures were ensconced in groups on two shelves. The more elaborate, painted Super Sculpey beings, each 9 or 10 inches high and shown individually, depicted childlike adults caught in disturbing, off-kilter poses. One figure with severed arms balances a grinning black head atop his own; another, in swaddling clothes, offers up an extra arm endowed with two small, smirking faces. The sculptures fill out Glantzman's vision of a world teeming with anxiety.
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