Blue and White
Artist
Paul Narkiewicz
(American, born 1937)
Datec. 1970
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions45 × 92 in. (114.3 × 233.7 cm)
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LineGift of James Pearson Duffy, 1992
Object numberUAC1351
DescriptionA native of Easton, Pennsylvania, Paul Narkiewicz began his artistic career studying painting at the Philadelphia College of Art. Not stopping there, Narkiewicz expanded his horizons and moved to New York City to learn the craft of printmaking in addition to his work in painting and sculpture. Narkiewicz has worked with artists such as Alex Katz, Romare Bearden, and Red Grooms, and collaborated on a site-specific sculpture with Vito Acconci, Mark de Suvero, and Roberta Stackhouse for the Walk On/Sit Down/Go Through show near New York's East River in 1987. More recently, Narkiewicz has been working on small ceramic sculptures, and his most recent show was at the Laurence Miller Gallery in 2015.Blue and White,c. 1970, is an illusionary work by Narkiewicz, playing tricks upon the viewer's eyes and embracing visual confusion. The repetition of dots on the left are nearly (but not quite) inverted into the same shape on the right, creating a composition that recalls Frank Stella's black and white line paintings. Similar visual vicissitude exists between Stella's black and white and Narkiewicz's blue and white, both investigating the visual vibrations caused by color proximity and pattern.
Text by Catherine Milewski
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