What color is Zen? Wisconsin painter Terrence Coffman seems to know. He ostensibly treads in abstract expressionism’s historical modernism. By contrast, the state’s most notable art tradition stems from the great Midwest regionalists, including Wisconsin’s adopted son, John Steuart Curry. Accordingly, most of the state’s dominant art trends have interfaced with the state’s abundant natural resources, including the architectural giant Frank Lloyd Wright.
In that sense, Coffman fits in, in a sidelong way. He even denies doing abstractions. His paintings, on display at Tory Folliard Gallery through July 7, represent “landscapes of my inner being, my attempt to move into a greater reality … I’m a conduit of sorts. I don’t stand before a subject to copy it. I breathe it in, consume it and let it flow through me onto canvas.”
That sounds grandiose but he’s striving for, and far beyond, the indigenous terrain, saying he draws from Zen disciplines of China and India. The result: painterly evocations of the highest order.
Coffman meditatively “breathes in” aspects of intensely atmospheric landscapes, or townscapes of Jefferson, Wis., his residence. The exhalation effect resembles California color-field abstractionist Richard Diebenkorn who, like Coffman, employed landscape-derived subject series and, atypical to New York abstract expressionists, often in pastels. Coffman has a similarly stunning gift for conjuring beauty that sometimes disappeared in the brawny abstract-expressionist process.
Coffman does embrace that movement’s grand tradition of large-scale paintings. And yet, the eye-drowning 72-by-84-inch Gail’s Garden 10 is something of an extreme “close-up.” It recalls ab-ex pioneer Arshile Gorky’s approach of literally diving his face and nose into a garden, to blur his focus but intensify his sensory experience. So, we see here two giant rose-like stems and blossoms, and the canvas divides into three large horizontal segments akin to layers of earth, yet they’re all sunlit in pastel tones. Horizontal streaks effect a weird suspended feeling. Along with such perceptual sleight of hand, you also detect small graphite scribbles, suggesting germinating seeds.
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These slight effects help distinguish Coffman from typical abstract expressionism. He also does very small-scale paintings, demanding fine techniques. So even his biggest canvases reveal miniscule spatters of paint, like a Jackson Pollock “mini-me” standing between his legs. But he’s nobody’s knock-off. Coffman also wields storytelling emotional power in his two A Long Way from Home variations. White clouds chill the spirit; the terrain seems like psychic mazes that might circle him back where he started, a classic nightmare.
Openings This Week
Free Lecture Series Portrait Society Gallery and Sculpture Milwaukee 424 E. Wisconsin Ave. June 27 The kick-off lecture (others follow through mid-October) will be at the Pfister Hotel. Shana McCaw and Brent Budsberg will discuss their sculpture, Skew, followed by Beth Sahagian-Allsopp discussing how several other works in Sculpture Milwaukee were fabricated. Look Here! Project Opening Night Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum 2220 N. Terrace Ave. June 28 “Look Here!” is a collaboration between UW-Milwaukee’s library and art school as well as artists from RedLine Milwaukee. The project centers on works that reimagine, transform and engage with items in the university’s extensive library collections. The opening night is free and open to the public to kick off the exhibit, which runs through Sept. 16. From China with Love Cedarburg Art Museum W63 N675 Washington Ave. June 28 UW-Milwaukee professor emeritus David Buck will speak on “American Reactions to Daily Life in Early 20th-Century China” from 5-6 p.m. in an event that is free and open to the public. Afterward, retire to the beer garden for live music, beverages and food. Professor Buck’s lecture is part of the ongoing (through Sept. 30) exhibition at the museum, “From China with Love: Hand-colored Photographs and Letters Home, 1919-1921.” Live Portrait Painting Two-Day Workshop Cedarburg Cultural Center W62 N546 Washington Ave. June 29-30 Marc Anderson, Best-of-Show winner from the Cedarburg Artists Guild’s “Paint Cedarburg” Plein Air Event, will teach a special two-day workshop entitled “Live Portrait Painting,” which will focus the attention of attendees on learning to paint portraits in oil. Instruction in the fundamentals of portrait painting—drawing, anatomy, color, lighting and brushwork—will start with a three-hour demo that kicks off each session. Home in Wauwatosa Gallery 2622 2622 N. Wauwatosa Ave. Friday, July 6 With the exhibition “Home in Wauwatosa,” you can view original paintings by Fred Bell of neighborhood scenes, painted from memory, while the artist was out on walks with his dog, Scruffy.
