Untitled (R-8)
More at nyss.org
Thomas Nozkowski has been one of the most quietly influential painters on the New York scene over the past two decades. Some people may find that statement surprising. After all, where are the tokens of blue-chip status that would attest to this position of influence-the retrospectives in major museums, the glossy hardbound coffee table monographs, the auction block records and so on?
Well, I did say quietly influential, after all. Undoubtedly to the detriment of his worldly career, though always in the service of the one career that counts, namely the progress of discovery and invention that occurs in the studio, Nozkowski has set his face against everything that signifies “importance” in the contemporary artworld: for instance, he has eschewed the large scale that has been de rigueur since the time of the abstract expressionists, who would nonetheless be shocked at the present situation in which artists tailor their work to the overweening proportions of museums that have been built to impress and dominate rather than to create intimacy. And he has avoided, as well, the systematic working methods that on the one hand are valued as signs of aesthetic rigor and on the other are so convenient for establishing the stylistic consistency and signature “look” essential to establishing a trusted brand name, in art as much as in any other retail field.
What I like is that he has kept the scale of his work small. Human size, more or less. sizes that anyone can hang on their wall, not museum/corporate size. I like this and the essay got me thinking about size in my waor, and art in general. I may post something on that at a later date.