Terry Winters: Knotted Graphs

The paintings on view in this exhibition mark an important step forward in Winters' oeuvre. The influence of scientific theory is present in familiar grids and patterns upon which the images are built, and yet they possess a spontaneity and fluid movement in space that breaks away from any kind of rigid underpinning. One important reason for this is the artist's decision to use transparent lake pigments almost exclusively. The artist notes that the transparency of the paints allows for one to witness “all the events that went into the making of the painting”.

In the paintings, columnar forms suggested by built-up geometric patterns appear alongside mathematically derived shapes which the artist calls “knot-forms”. In the catalog for the exhibition, Kathryn Tuma observes in her essay that, “the theoretical nature of these figures is significant, and is entwined with [Winters'] interest in the generation of new pictorial spaces. Winters's knots are abstract conceptual figures culled from knot theory, a specialized area of topology involving the study of mathematical knots—defined as closed curves in space whose lines do not touch or intersect”.

Winters continues to investigate the complexities of space that painting alone is able to conjure, drawing on the tension between organic and in-organic forms. Tuma notes that Winters' new work, “speaks not of forms but of forces and intensities, not of the stabilities of the grid but of dynamic movement – of some of the conceptual possibilities available to pictorial space when one pushes paint around and through and ultimately off the grid”.

Terry Winters: Knotted Graphs will be on view at the Matthew Marks Gallery at 522 West 22nd Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues) through January 24, 2009. 22nd Street Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, from 11:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M.

For further information or reproductions please contact Sabrina Buell at 212-243-0200.