New Art Examiner

ANTHONY DE BLASI, "The World is Flat,"  1980. Photo by Asher and Friedman, courtesy of the artist.

ANTHONY DE BLASI

Race Street Gallery

1064 Race St.

Grand Rapids, 616/454-7000

Each of Anthony De Blasi’s audacious larger works (approximately 5′ x 7′) employs a thick, rubbery ground of an earthly hue. In several of the newer ones, large, amorphous shapes, in colors of medium intensity, over­ lap, nearly covering the ground. These shapes suggest jigsaw puzzle pieces or lethargic continental plates. Beneath this skin of polymer emulsion are scattered bits of protruding matter, looking rather like wads of discarded chewing gum. Over this surface, in apparent randomness, are deposited large to small extruded sausages; highly textured smears and spills, some extending beyond the edge of the support frame; dots; blobs; and strings of toothpaste railroad ties. Most of these high-relief elements arc vividly colored. Col­ or and relief intensity increase coordinately.

Through internal contradiction, these intentionally problematic works force examination of assumptions. Their debris-ridden character attracts and repulses. The flatness of the painted space and lack of illusionistic depth .are exaggerated by the use of furtive bas-relief. The limitations of the support structure are emphasized by painted areas slithering off and beyond the edge. The use of systematic method is accentuated by a result that ,seems to negate the possibility of order. Each painting is a residence for doubt.

De Blasi turned to a gestural style in rebellion against tight control and null-expressionist tendencies of the sixties. However, unlike the abstract expressionists, he does not intend to vent the unmitigated unconscious but consciously  to  provoke a reconsideration of established standards. The objective is evolution: the search for new approaches to the manipulation of painted space.

PENELOPE FRIEDMAN