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Cathie Bleck: Open Spaces

August 5-26, 2006

I Space Gallery
230 W. Superior St., Second Floor
Chicago, IL 60610
tel.: 312-587-9976
hours: Tuesday-Saturday 11am-5pm
http://www.ispace.uiuc.edu/index.html

Beneath the veneer of modern urban life lies the stirring of wildness, and the deeper-lying emotional needs of the human spirit. An interior room in a home or office is a sterile environment, all angles and doors, plain walls and predictable contours. But step outside, and one will find worlds within worlds, all entwined, dramatically sliding in scale. At the foot of the massive tree is the acorn; at the side of the acorn is the ant. In the tree's branches live squirrel and bird; in the stream at its root are fish and frog. The ivy vine twines up its side; the moss shelters in its hollows. Cathie Bleck: Open Spaces, on exhibition at I Space Gallery through August 26, 2006, presents thirty of the artist's works from a new, limited-edition book by the same name. In these confidently-etched works Bleck captures that delicious welter of nature's sensory detail, commingling it with sensuality, storytelling, and, through entwined line and imagery, a deep sense of the interconnectedness of all things.

The first impression for the eye is of nature, force, and movement: sometimes grand and sweeping, sometimes delicate. The humans, trees and wise animals in these works all serve dual roles, in part retaining their identity as individual storytelling elements, and in part, curved and coiled as well into a larger whole of decorative strokes that is part of these works' considerable appeal. Just beneath the curious ape in When We Became Human (inks and liquid clay pigments on scratchboard: 13 x 16 in.: 2006) is a passage of mystery and wildness, evoked by a recurring symbol in this exhibition, a feminine figure with long outflung hair, whose face is concealed by an upraised arm and whose back is to the viewer. But forming her -- or is she forming them? -- in her expansive gesture are curls of fern frond lobed like backbones, a wheaten seed-head with its even row of berries, a tadpole, small upcurving fish, and two snail or nautilus shells whose repetitive chambers and patterns recapitulate the ferns and the curve of the gesture. In When We Became Human the movement never ceases, but neither does it overwhelm: it flows, swiftly or slowly as the curls and curves dictate, organically from one element to the next. The subject of the work is evolution, with long ages of passing time evoked by the pterodactyls, dinosaur, and trilobite (and even primordial chaos, in the solemn solidity of the areas of pure darkness framing the image at upper left and lower right), and the focal figure of the earnest ape, from whose hands a bird takes flight as if a proffered gift. In his book Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History (Norton: September 1990), scientist-writer Stephen Jay Gould proposed, based on data from the 600-million-year-old fossil deposits, that evolution was far from the orderly advance of progress we once thought, and in fact, how contingent it was on a host of factors of almost impossible complexity. The lavish handling of When We Became Human hints at the marvels of that complexity. At the same time it appears to posit the mystery of future generations in the shining seedhead grasped for or shielded by the enigmatic figure among the ferns.

Purest black and luminous white are the foundation of Bleck's art. The works are rendered in scratchboard, a medium having affinity with woodcut and wood engraving, yet different from both, being a non-printing medium (unlike woodcut, where the cuts are physically inked and applied to paper to produce the image, scratchboard illustrations are reproduced via photoreproduction) and allowing swifter, more gestural handling as a result of its softer surface. Comprised of a thin layer of clay inked on top with deep black, the board may be worked with engraving (or similar) tools, with the artist incising the image, trailing white behind her engraving tool and leaving black where the board is untouched. To merely carve the outline of a figure is possible, but as with Bleck's work in this exhibition, the most exciting passages leave mere drawing-style line far behind. Profound black and luminous white intermingle and even swap roles in the same figure, serving as both positive and negative space as they lead the eye into and around the compositions. A shifting sense of ground and the morphing of one image into the next heightens the visual appeal of images such as Mother of Pearl (ink on scratchboard: 9 x 11 in.: 1999), with its tantalizing and sensuous rhythms alternating between the strong graphic black of jungle darkness among the forest trunks to the left, and the lambent areas of white seeming to wash leaves upward and around a central illuminate patch just off-center. With the balance of dark-and-light play engaged in this botanic lushness, it takes the eye a moment to find, as if on private discovery, the reclining female nude worked into the jungle distance. The effect is mysterious, sensual, and a delight.

In several of these works the artist has introduced color by painting lightly pigmented ink washes (in, appropriately, earth tones) onto the finished work. The result adds warmth and liveliness without sacrificing the strong definition of black-and-white contrast which forms the graphic appeal of the primary image. In The Choice (inks on scratchboard: 19 x 11 in.: 2006), with its figure balanced between two futures -- explosive inspiration at the top, a dismal descent into despair at the bottom -- the fluid areas of yellow-ochre are a unifying element, visually linking both top and bottom as equal possibilities around the central, delicately poised figure.

That many (nearly all) of these works are represented in the Open Spaces book is a pleasure; that they are currently available for view on exhibition is a greater one, for, as with fine printmaking, seeing the original gives a greater appreciation of the nuances of the image and its making not captured in even the best photographic reproductions: the precise handling of the scratchboard work, the intriguing small strokes where one can literally see how the clay has been carved away (the artist gives an engaging description of the process on her web site), the velvety perfection of the untouched areas of black, and even, in Bat Tango (ink on scratchboard: 18 x 15 in.: 1999), the equivalent of 'blind stamping' (lines impressed, but not delineating color) in the vanes of the bat's wings. As well, several works are included which represent the artist's first foray into large-scale work in what is more commonly a small and intimate medium. To see works such as The Birth of Mother Nature's Son (inks and liquid clay pigments on clayboard: 60 x 30 in.: 2006) full size, one can more fully appreciate their graphic impact, as well as Bleck's skill in translating her compositions to a much larger scale while still retaining the enchanting flows of entwining form.

One can stand before any of these works and find much to see, and yet still more. The human spirit needs such luxuriance. The artist noted her influences as including woodcut artists Lynd Ward, Rockwell Kent, and Agnes Miller Parker, and one will easily perceive these affinities. Well worth a special trip, Cathie Bleck: Open Spaces will be at I Space Gallery through August 26, 2006. A closing reception will be held at the gallery on August 25th from 6-8pm, with a talk by the artist at 7pm.

The limited edition book, Cathie Bleck: Open Spaces, A Visual Memoir for Daily Inspiration is priced at $40.00 and is available for purchase at the gallery, as well as from the artist's web site (www.cathiebleck.com) or via the publisher (www.murphydesign.com).

--Katherine R. Lieber

Katherine R. Lieber has edited ArtScope.net's Visual Arts reviews since 1998. Ms. Lieber is Editor and Associate Producer for ArtScope.net.

Editorial Note: Many of the books mentioned in ArtScope.net reviews are available through Amazon.com (Cathie Bleck: Open Spaces, A Visual Memoir for Daily Inspiration is available from the artist and/or publisher - see www.cathiebleck.com or www.murphydesign.com). Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History by Stephen Jay Gould, and other books mentioned in www.artscope.net reviews, may be purchased through this site's Amazon.com link or by clicking on the link above.