Tony De Blasi at Meisel Gallery

Raymond J. Steiner, Art Times, Vol. 7, No. 9, pp. 3, 6, Mt. Marion, NY, 1991

Louis K. Meisel Gallery, 141 Prince St., New York City. “Tony De Blasi:Constructed Paintings.” (Mar 30-Apr 20, 1991).

The number of artists is legion who have attempted to take art back to some elemental form in an effort to “save it” from a  creaking traditionalism, but few have deconstructed and reconstructed its essential properties with such wit, grace, harmony and effectiveness as does Tony De Blasi. Without seeing them, it is hard to imagine how a mere seven of his “constructed paintings” can bring such delightful viewing pleasure. In the telling, De Blasi’s work sounds deceptively simple: cut- out strips of wood heavily impastoed with a mixture of acrylic and gel, affixed at varying distances from a stark, white wall and arranged in a frameless configuration. As with most good art, however, the work must be seen. To state that the colors and their juxtaposition, the seeming random­ ness of shapes and the interplay of shadows cast upon the wall are fun­ and titles such as “One Potato, Two Potato” or “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” only further the sense of playfulness-is to overlook the inherent seriousness of De Blasi’s conceptions. He has taken the elements of art-color, form and composition-and, while freeing them from the straightjacket of academic and formal didacticism has not jettisoned order (that which separates “art” from nature), reconstituting them in an elegant blend of sculpture and painting. The individual shapes (calligraphy? brush- strokes?), discreet and of one color, become sculptural elements in a frameless “painting,” working not only off of each other but off the wall as well. “Off the Wall,” in fact, is an apt (if outdated) description of De Blasi’s work. What he offers is after all, one of the most basic (if not often overlooked) purposes of art: enjoyment

This is the high seriousness of true joy.