ArtSeen
FRANK STOUT
The work of Frank Stout has an unusual paradox: the painterly eloquence, which seems to evoke a deceptive ease in depicting modes of appearances, is betrayed by a compulsive need to iterate expressionistic gestures throughout the picture planes.
Frank Stout is a product of the movement that in the 1950s began to counter the prevailing abstract styles by working with the figure—Alex Katz, Fairfield Porter, Jan Muller, Wolf Kahn, and Bob Thompson were among the leading proponents of this approach. Unlike most of his contemporaries, however, Stout’s interest in the figure has a particular emphasis on lesser expressionistic pathos. His descriptive representation of subdued facial expression projects his own empathy for each individual he portrays. One gets the feeling that Stout might deliberately choose whether to invent his own figure or to work from photographs in order to increase the freedom of spontaneity. This choice is perhaps essential in reading the intentionality behind Stout’s work.
The two paintings in the show, “Nursing School Graduates” and “Highschool Graduate,” are good examples of Stout’s most successful syntheses of descriptive form and his insistence on flattening the picture plane. He manages to achieve this by a grid-like repetition of brushwork, which operates via a multitude of gestures that are more akin to intimate expressionistic calligraphy than to the large silhouettes in Alex Katz’s monumental canvases. In this respect, Frank Stout is closer to the Abstract Expressionists in terms of content rather than size. Furthermore, Stout’s foremost seductive quality is the luminous liquidity he gives both to the paint and to the painted alike, creating an evanescence of lightness and spirit. Stout’s sincerity, meanwhile, would never allow him to be too clever.
The Painting Center New York, January 28 – February 24, 2001
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES

Walter De Maria: Boxes for Meaningless Work
By Amanda GluibizziMARCH 2023 | ArtSeen
Just as youre about to step into Walter De Maria: Boxes for Meaningless Work, you might notice a short, high-pitched sound underlying the other noises that occupy museum galleries. Its the chirping of crickets, and because it emanates from a speaker hung near the ceiling, it seems to envelop the vestibule, both placeable and unlocatable.

Eve Fowler: New Work
By Ksenia SobolevaFEB 2023 | ArtSeen
The exhibition of Fowlers work currently on view at Gordon Robichaux shows us that her feminist pursuits are far from abandoned. Fittingly titled Eve Fowler: New Work, the solo show consists of a film, a series of collages, and a nine-channel video installation.
Brenda Goodman: Hop Skip JumpNew Work 2022
By Andrew L. SheaMARCH 2023 | ArtSeen
These paintings work not in the realm of intellect, but that of feeling. Goodmans is a formalism that is never escapist or hermetic, but instead tied to an encyclopedic spectrum of human emotions, including terror, despondency, anger, hope, joy, even love. As she prepares to enter her ninth decade, Goodman has once again come upon a new abstract language that, somehow, remains intimately in touch with those important realities.
Dara Birnbaum’s Note(s): Work(ing) Process(es) Re: Concerns (That Take On/Deal With)
By Jennie WaldowDEC 21-JAN 22 | Art Books
Materially detached from Birnbaums finished products, her working documents chart the theoretical motivations behind each piece, along with the novel technical solutions she devised to translate thorny concepts into external space. While this is not a publication for the casual reader, its complexity and resolute physical presence dovetail with the concerns of Birnbaums body of work, linking means and ends.