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Serial Works An Essay by the
Artist My paintings are about
colour, its energy and activity, its interaction and
interdependence. My drawings are about the elements that
constitute the work: line, direction, shape and surface. My
work is abstract or non-objective, and it is
rigorously planar. Since 1984, I have been working with
irregular shapes on an orderly plane in my paintings and in
my drawings. The works in this exhibition
present forms of seriality. In each series, the works can be
viewed separately, in groups within the series, and
ultimately as a series of interrelated works that together
continue and complete each other to become one
work. The
Paintings On Redness
#1-4, On Yellowness #1-4, and On
Blueness #1-4 are three works, each consisting of
four paintings. Each of the three series is focused on a
primary colour. The four paintings in each series sustain a
primary colour in four variations as coloured grounds. The
relationships of the colour-shapes on the coloured ground to
each other in each painting are as vital as the
relationships of the colour-shapes, both as colour and as
shape, between the four paintings in each serial work. The
works were made to emphasize a particular aspect of the
serial and were the consequence of the body of work that
preceded them. Chronologically, the seven
small Eureka paintings are the earliest
paintings in this exhibition. They are single, separate
works, not a series. Seen together here, they show a
consistency of purpose by which I pursued a diversity of
colour and shape. In each painting, four shapes create two
more highly irregular plane shapes; one is at centre, the
other is a surround shape. These paintings grew out
of an earlier approach taken in drawings that failed and
that I have abandoned. The change from line (drawing)
to colour (painting) clarified what I was after and gave
impetus to the works that followed. The title of these seven
small paintings reflects the breakthrough I believed I had
made. Three paintings, On
Redness (red and blue), On Yellowness
(yellow and red) and On Blueness (blue and
yellow) followed the Eureka paintings. They were made as
single works, but their colour, that is, the primary
relationships within each and between the three paintings,
have made them a group or series: three paintings as one
work. The three series of four
paintings described above are the outcome of these 10
paintings. In them, six colour-shapes reduce to five, to
four, then to three shapes on a primary ground. All is red,
yellow and blue. The
Drawings: Configuring
#1-9. In this series, each drawing is complete in
itself. The white page and the irregular shapes drawn on the
page are in interaction. The surface of each shape is drawn
with lines in directions relevant to its boundary. Each
shape's surface is particular and integrates the white of
the paper. The series shows a relatedness that turns
similarity into difference. The drawings may be viewed
singly or in groups of three, but it is as a series of nine
that an essential constancy and continuation is realized and
completed. In Van Doesburg's Alphabet
only horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines are drawn. Each
letter-form is a square and I have drawn the square shape to
co-operate with the square plane of the paper. The serial
aspect of these works depends on the alphabet itself. One
reads the letters from A to Z in their traditional
positions. The series of drawings is understood by the
serial form of the alphabet - each letter is separate from
each other letter; each is defined by the letter that
precedes and follows it, but the series is complete only
when all 26 drawings are present. For this reason, I have
included Van Doesburg's Alphabet in this
exhibition. There are 22 paintings and
36 drawings in this exhibition. They occur as single works
and as serial works and are shown here in that manner. The
extraordinary space of the Artword Gallery has allowed me to
present groups of works as one work as well as show the
chronological development that led to their realization. I
want to thank Judith Sandiford, Curator of the Gallery, for
the invitation to exhibit and the opportunity to mount this
show. Barbara Caruso, Biography BARBARA CARUSO graduated
from the Ontario College of Art in 1965. She lived and
worked in Toronto until 1985; she now lives in Paris,
Ontario. Since 1966, she has mounted
twenty-one solo exhibitions. In public galleries: The
Library & Gallery, Cambridge (1996); Blackwood Gallery,
University of Toronto in Mississauga (1994);
Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery (1988); Lynnwood Arts Centre,
Simcoe (1994 and 1987); Erindale Campus Gallery, Mississauga
(1983); Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston (1979); the
Gallery/Stratford (1977); Confederation Centre Art Gallery,
Charlottetown, P.E.I. (1977); Owens Art Gallery, Mount
Allison University, Sackville, N.B. (1975); University of
Alberta, Edmonton (1974). Solo exhibitions in private
and co-op galleries include: Artword Gallery, Toronto
(1999); Workscene Gallery, Toronto (1991); Manning Gallery,
Toronto (1986 and 1985); A.C.T., Toronto (1982); The Pollock
Gallery, Toronto (1973); Gadatsy Gallery, Toronto (1973);
Aggregation Gallery, Toronto (1971 and 1970). She has participated in
numerous group shows including: in Montreal, The Empirical
Presence (1991); in Woodstock, Ontario and touring,
Formalist Encounters (1986-87); at Harbourfront in Toronto,
Stimulus '78 (1978) and Festival of Women and the Arts
(1975); at XXI Olympiad, Montreal and in Paris, France and
London, England, Abstractions (1976-77); in Binghamton,
N.Y., Festival of Canada (1971). Her work is in public
collections including the Canada Council Art Bank, the AGO,
University of Alberta, Agnes Etherington Arts Centre, the
Hamilton Art Gallery, Confederation Centre Art Gallery, the
Gallery/Stratford, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, and in private
collections in Canada and the U.S. She has received awards
from the Canada Council and the Ontario Arts
Council. She was editor and
printer/publisher of Seripress (1972-1980) publishing visual
and concrete poetry. Her writing on art has appeared in
Canadian art and literary publications. In 1986, an issue of
Open Letter was devoted to her work.
Paintings and drawings by
Barbara Caruso
October 20 to
November 20, 1999
Opening reception Saturday, October 23 from 2 - 5 pm.
Artword Gallery, 75 Portland Street, Toronto
October, 1999