| Paul Waldman: New Paintings and Sculptures 2006April 27, 2006- May 26, 2006Reception: April 27, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Paul Waldman has long used a practice of juxtaposition to generate tension in his work. From the mid-1960s
through the 70s, he incorporated partial images of nude bodies into minimalist structures and created a
dichotomy between the ripe contours of flesh and the cool flat surfaces of monochrome painting and geometric
sculpture. In later works, oppositions took other forms – animal/human, upside down/right side up, and
misaligned horizon lines across the panels of a diptych, for example. And he continues to this day to position
descriptive representation against abstract grounds that deny the illusion of space.
In the new paintings, individual or pairs of figures are positioned towards the bottom of each panel of a four by
six foot diptych against elaborately detailed decorative grounds. A striking feature of some of the female
figures – besides the flames streaming from their bodies, non-naturalistic skin tones and decidedly strange
facial expressions – is that they have a penis in addition to their female attributes. In Double Digit, a highheeled
figure is shown twice from slightly different angles; her arms push her breasts together as she grasps
her male member between her hands. A related foursome of small painted ceramic hermaphroditic figures
reveal themselves on plywood pedestals, on view yet absorbed in themselves.
The recent publication of the first monograph about the development of Paul Waldman’s work, Paul
Waldman: Eros, Art and Magic, makes clear that certain themes run through his work from the start. Yet the
objective detachment of the early work separates from the uncompromisingly personal nature of the recent
work. As Carter Ratcliff writes in his essay, “Having dispensed with essences, Waldman is now an artist of
minute nuance and grand slippages, who invites us to understand that we are indubitably human but unable to
know in full what that means or how we might evolve. No longer comforted by transcendent convictions about
anything, Waldman understands that truth is always up for grabs. Some falsehoods count as fictions and some
of them point to fresh truths.”
This is Paul Waldman’s second exhibition at Lennon, Weinberg. In addition to Carter Ratcliff, art critic Carol
Strickland and St. Louis Museum curator John W. Nunley contributed essays to the monograph which was
published by Charta and is distributed by DAP (Distributed Art Publishers).
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