Gordon Newton: Untitled Lithographs

In this series of ten untitled lithographs, crafted in a simplistic black and white color palette, Gordon Newton creates kinetic compositions wherein he explores interlocking geometries that tumble playfully across the page. The traffic of shapes in these works range from more simplistic, wherein large white forms are fewer, separated by larger fields of black, to more complex and congested arrangements. These busier configurations of white shapes mapped onto a dark field, contain jumbled, overlapping shapes that interact, colliding with and invading one another in a more direct way than those pieces less chaotic compositionally. In viewing these works as a whole series, an exploratory evolution is unveiled that commonly crops up in the works of Newton, using form and figure to embark on a visual journey through aesthetic issues. By complicating and breaking down the implicitly animated, cream colored shapes, Newton explores the seemingly mundane problem of formulating interest and energy with the pared down aesthetic elements.

Often heralded as the reclusive genius, seminal to the Cass Corridor artistic style, Gordon Newton, a Detroit native born in 1948, spent his childhood moving about the midwest before returning to the Southeast Michigan, beginning his formal art education in Port Huron Community College. From there, Newton elected to return to downtown Detroit, enrolling in art school at the Society of Arts and Crafts (now College for Creative Studies) in 1969, transferring to Wayne State University a year later. Known for labored, deeply analytical work inspired by his surroundings both in downtown Detroit and the more naturalized landscape of Northern Michigan, Newton carved out a place for himself not only in the Cass Corridor, but found contextualization within a larger American Expressionist movement, combining various elements of established visual languages to create an almost neo-Expressionist style, speaking in his own, unique vernacular. Gordon Newton has continued to live and work in Detroit through to today. Though he remains an elusive figure in the art world, his work continues to be visible, not only due to the Wayne State Art Collection, but through exhibitions throughout the surrounding areas.

Written by Kat Goffnett