Written
deep in the fluid layers of Sydney Philen Yeager's lush oil paintings,
the interdependence of man and nature reveals itself. Her introspective
analysis of everyday perceptions infuses the large-scale paintings
with an unexpected intimacy. The retrospective exhibition, Little
Mysteries, at the Galveston Arts Center, consisting of paintings
from 1992-2002, offers viewers the means to decipher her current
show, New Paintings, (2002-2003) at McMurtrey Gallery, Houston.
The recognizable images of her earlier work are later distilled
into the essence of visual experience, and textures of the past
succumb to opulence of the painted surface.
As Little Mysteries demonstrates, seemingly insignificant, common
objects-a torso, a bowl, a light bulb, a plant-populate the paintings
of the early 1990s. A plant's vines undulate throughout the picture
plane, weave around a torso, envelop a bowl. In Unfilled (night
torso with scissors and lily), the bowls' oval openings morph into
a series of ellipses, which puncture the surface and serve as conduits
to the more somber depths of the painting. In Mirror a series of
yellow ellipses wax and wane, revolving across the darkened surface,
evoking an eclipse or rotating mirror, defying reflection.
The ovals found in Vol de Nuit, no longer parallel to the canvas
edge, display variations in size, transparency, and color as they
flutter across a night sky. The recognizable object is transformed
into the verb of experience.
The earlier paintings deftly define complex tiers of visual information
floating over earth-toned backgrounds, their placement inferred
by superimposition of the various elements. Glove Stretcher (1996)
displays a more concen-trated approach to the process of layering.
The formerly depicted torso is now represented in the fleshy colors
of rose madder and naples yellow which drip fluidly and skim the
surface, obscuring the calligraphy embedded below. The painting
itself has become the embodi-ment of human physicality. The warm
reds and yellows of curvilinear strokes in Double Bond are reminiscent
of cellular masses. The whole is sustained by the efforts of each
stroke. To remove one would cause collapse.
Works from the mid-1990s such as In Absentia (1996) and Cipher (W6)
employ systematic patterns of repeated marks to construct backgrounds
resembling textiles. The brown and black woven background of the
exquisite Flux Loops (2003) refines and elaborates on this technique
while the calligraphic line comes into its own as subject matter.
Gestural lines that resemble Arabic or Chinese characters, even
hieroglyphs, state the power of personal identification. The horizontal
bands of script in Cipher signify the presence of the hand more
than does the glove floating in the oval frame. Thick brush strokes
swirl across the surface in a symphonic outpouring of activity,
imbuing Thermal Expansion (2002) with an obsessive Baroque sensuality.
In Yeager's most recent exhibition at McMurtrey Gallery, dense layers
of rich color
twist ceaselessly, exuberantly confronting the viewer in expansive
canvases. The intoxicat-ing effect overloads the senses, and they
love it. In Red Shift, red and pink petal shapes explode from a
central vortex, the blooms densely packed and erupting with regenerative
potentiality. Venetian red, cobalt and white con-volutions writhe
and swarm around a central hidden force in Rotation Axis. Luscious
blue ribbons offrench curves electrify the surface of Magnetic Field.
The canvases pulsate with visceral intensity.
More intimate in scale, the small, beautiful, oval canvases in the
series Discrete Symmetry, convey the fallibility of perception.
Contrast created by alternating dabs of complementary colors generates
spatial ambiguity as geometric shapes advance and recede. These
fractal expressions update Josef Albers' color theory in their deceptive
simplicity.
In the highly refined Strata, quietly reflective horizontal bands
of delineating hues flow in one direction only to wash back upon
them-selves. Analogous to a geological core sample, the vertical
diptych elicits the passage of time and interconnected layers of
experience, just as a core sample exposes the mysteries beneath
our feet, Yeager's paintings chronicle the collective events which
underlie daily existence. In her exquisite paintings she transcribes
her internal conversations into emblems of common experience, invoking
wonder in the mundane, continuity in the midst of change.
Back
to previous page.
