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Jon Imber at Nielsen
Art in America, April, 2006 by Carl Little
Like Philip Guston, his mentor early on, Jon Imber has no qualms about disturbing his own esthetic status quo. Over the years, he has produced notable work in representational, figurative and semi-abstract idioms. He has been as comfortable painting brash still lifes as rendering landscapes of upstate New York and Deer Isle, Me., where he spends part of each year away from his home on the Boston outskirts.
The work in Imber's first solo show at Nielsen marked another striking fork in the road. While continuing his passion for plein-air painting (he starts many canvases outdoors, then may rework them in the studio), Imber has recently pushed his Abstract-Expressionist tendencies to a new level. These 22 mostly medium-size oils on canvas and panel (all works 2004-05) combine the gusto of the Action painters and--where the landscape emerges from dashing brushwork--the dynamics of John Marin and William Kienbusch.
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Many of the paintings relate to coastal motifs: littoral and ledge, tide and swell, cove and beach. In Low Tide #1, shore, sea and sky are made apparent by shifts in palette, but demarcations are less important than the overall spirit of the Maine coast. The same can be said of Bob's Ledge, a relatively large (48 by 24) canvas that renders the water's edge with unbridled strokes of paint. Wide and raw, diagonal, vertical and horizontal, these dashing thrusts of white, sienna and gray (with other color accents) connote the energy of nature.
Those familiar with this artist's work will recognize the subject of Imber's Hill. Imber has painted this upstate New York hillside on several occasions over the years, capturing the verdant fields, distant ridge line and a roadway on the right, which is nearly obscured this time around by the spirited brushwork. In a like manner, Haul is a re-energized version of Imber's earlier marine still lifes, the boat gear transformed into a mess of looping rope ends and bits of boot and buoy.
Palaemone, Red Dash and Yellow Splash are built around abstract shapes and configurations that recall Ab-Ex compositions, with extra panache in the handling of paint. This is Imber pulling out all the stops, expressiveness of a furious sort superseding ties to any specific object or view--as if the artist were channeling de Kooning. It's a persuasive act.
COPYRIGHT 2006 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
