Roy Thurston at Thomas Solomon's Garage - Los Angeles, California - Review of Exhibitions - Brief Article

Art in America, June, 1995 by Tobey Crockett

Roy Thurston's spare, elegant show of abstract paintings was a restrained exercise in light and color. Meticulously lacquered, slightly off-square fiberglass and aluminum-core panels were arranged alone and in pairs. They captured and refracted the ambient California daylight, their radiance amplified by subtle scoring of their monochromatic surfaces. These are smart and thoughtful constructions that create a mysterious, almost otherworldly effect.

The dense perfection of the surfaces--yellow, black, fuchsia, white, lavender or brown--is achieved through a time-intensive layering of lacquer. The built-up color layers are routed with either machine or hand tools. The resulting lines and ridges delicately segment the skin, creating pockets of recession and projection. Minute ridges can be detected within the routed grooves, adding to the refraction and occasional iridescence. Exerting a quiet fascination, the panels seem to glow, oscillate and curve in and out as light conditions change. It is a very handsome effect.

Four of the seven works in the show consist of panels arranged in pairs, lending a narrative quality to their reading. Only one pair is identical, a mustard-yellow horizontal combo titled 94-9 with gently undulating grooves running vertically. The soft grooves of 94-4 cause the eye to rove over the rippling yellow to detect shifts in density. The hue evokes Josef Albers, an association consistent with Thursion's obvious interest in the effects of pure color.

Other works are grooved in fanlike diagonals or corner to corner. The perfection of the lacquered grounds sets off every variation, most noticeably in those routed with hand tools, and allows the artist to search for more luminous effects. The fuchsia 94-6 is a particularly intense example. A totemic vertical titled 93-4 evokes the body in its 5 feet of jet-black striations sectioned by a thin band of smoothness in the middle. The play of light over the surface, affected by cloudiness and time of day, may recall velvet, ravens' wings or hair.

Time and patience are required to appreciate the subtlety of Thurston's works. The artist aspires to the mantle of the California Light and Space school of painting, and seems eminently qualified to advance its agenda.