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Joanne Freeman's current suite of paintings continues a long and productive dialogue with the pure abstract language of form and color. Using oil paint and beeswax paste on panel, Freeman builds hard edged patterns of dynamic geometry which are slowed and seasoned by the sensuality of her medium. It is this quickening playfulness of forms contrasted with the gravitas of the trowled and scraped beeswax-laden paint that make Freeman's paintings engaging to both the intellect and the senses.
Triangular wedges and curvilinear shapes dance and flicker across a painted ground, suggestive of frenetic modern choreography or magnetic fields attracting and repelling forms. Figure/ground interpretations shift and at times seem to be attempting to spell out text or configurate into an image. Freeman's paintings remain resolutely abstract, however, insisting that there is still much to be learned of the world through her non-objective idiom.
While Freeman's paintings remain abstract, associations with art history and popular culture abound. The revolutionary zeal of Malevich and Mondrian can be found in Freeman's buoyant optimism. Also seen in her work is 1950s illustrational styling and Pop Art's cool send-up of our consumer economy. Freeman has found a painterly language substantial enough to be taken on its own formal terms, yet flexible enough to reflect an American cultural identity.
Joanne Freeman received her B.S. in Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin and her M.A. in Studio Art from New York University. She has had solo exhibitions in New York, Zurich, and Casablanca and her work is represented in several important private and corporate collections, including the collections of The Prudential and Readers Digest. She currently lives and works in New York.
Kevin Wixted 2005 |
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