Carolyn Harris at Tibor de Nagy

Art in America, June-July, 2005 by Bill Scott

The 11 works by Carolyn Harris in her first New York solo exhibition almost all depict the water and landscape of Gloucester, Mass., where she spends her summers. At first glance they are so deceptively simple and straightforward--a winter landscape, trees in a garden or flowers in a vase--that one might miss their complexity and deeper beauty. Stylistically, as in the lush summertime oil called Perfect Day, East Gloucester I, Harris's vision displays affinities to the landscapes of George Bellows and John Sloan, while her clarity and direct paint application prompt this viewer to think also of more contemporary artists, like Louisa Matthiasdottir and Robert De Niro, Sr. Her vision is passionate without being overly romantic, her drawing fluid and her color brilliantly understated.

Dating from 1995 to 2004, the work Harris showed here included oils, watercolors, pastels and a single gouache--all rather small, ranging in size from 10 inches square up to 22 by 30 inches. Each piece is painted on paper and executed in one or two sessions. Accordingly, they all emanate the aliveness and sense of being within a particular landscape that only alla prima painting can.

Luminosity of color is what distinguishes these works, and the color is most vibrant in the four pastels Cosmos and Aster Bouquet; Early Winter Night, Outer Harbor; Little Red Oak in the Landscape," and Soldiers and Sailors, Riverside. The gouache Summer Yard depicts a brown vertical (representing the lower portion of a tree) surrounded by a variety of differentiated greens that saturate the paper surface. Whereas the other works suggest vistas of deep space, the orange horizon line flattens the space, making one more aware of how the artist juxtaposes shapes to suggest form and space. The paintings never appear formulaic, and even when a given motif is depicted more than once--as with the oils Out from Wonsom's Cove IV and Out from Wonsom's Cove V--each version strikes an independent chord.

Although Harris has painted and exhibited since 1960, seeing these works together had the feel of a discovery. Like a remarkable writer whose latest publication one has stumbled upon, only to learn that a lifetime of work has preceded it, Harris awakens the desire to see everything she has done.