A passion for color, trapped in prismatic shapes, but yearning to break free best describes the artistic pursuits of Elisabeth Gross-Marks. Her painting career, as represented in this retrospective exhibit, spans four decades and two continents, but the artist began painting in her native Germany when eleven years old. She studied art with Professor Nagel in Munich and Professor Kaus in Berlin. This exhibit chronicles an ongoing style that continues to develop. On the surface the Gross-Marks styles involve radical shifts and departures, but when considered as a whole, not only is there continuity, the works reveal an unfolding narrative of self awareness, outlining her discovery, experimentation, immersion, and most recently an explosion of color.
The opening reception is from 5 to 9 PM, at
Shangri-La Gifts and Publications, 156 E. State Street (The Commons). Exhibit is open daily through May and June of 2004.
From her early works, like “Being Trapped” (1977) to her most recent “Universal Motion” (2004), Elisabeth Gross-Marks catches vivid and vibrant color.
In her early works, prismatic color floats in the distance of a bleak surreal landscape, like hang-gliders soaring over an ancient town, trapped by conventions and moral expectations. Hints of fantasy and imaginative toys contrast with structure and form to tell a story. Now, Gross-Marks explores those same colors, as if under the lens of an exceptionally high-powered microscope to reveal how apparently smooth linear surfaces and controlled patterns are truly uneven and rugged terrains, full of excitement at every turn. She strives to inspire other people's creativity in all aspects of their lives.
DISCOVERY
These paintings study vulnerability and exposure. The Gross-Marks period of “discovery” is best represented by “Being Trapped” (1977). In it, two surrealistic figured pose in a very structured German town. The female is exposed and naked, but still trapped by the eyes of society. Despite the bleak mental landscape, there is hope. The hang-gliders in the far distance are getting ready to enter the artist’s world. “Daybreak” (1982) allows the color to enter the space, but in a controlled display. In “The Doll” (1985), a self-portrait of Gross-Marks, the figure is engulfed in colored shapes, but not yet immersed. Characters are portrayed in environments of entrapment or freedom.
EXPERIMENTATION
The “experimentation” phase for Gross-Marks was a time when portrayed figures begin to disappear from the composition while prismatic patterned shapes increasingly engulf the tactile landscape. “Summer Hat” (1990) and “Spring Fair” (1993) are not only typical examples of this period of discovery, they show a progression from the figure looking at the color close up yet divided by white emptiness, in “Summer Hat,” to “Spring Fair” where the figures are taken over by a burst of color that engulfs them completely.
The final development in this “experimentation” phase is represented by the pixilated colorization of the figures themselves, as in “Hockey Player” (1995).
It is as if the experiment has passed a threshold of no return and the figures cannot return from the abstraction of shapes that they have become. One reason for this new vision was that the artist made a major life change decision at the beginning of this period: to move from Germany to the United States, in 1989.
IMMERSION
As the title suggests, “Passing Through” (1997) is about transition and immersion. In this period, Elisabeth Gross-Marks completely abandoned figural representation and immersed herself in a universe of geometrically bounded color. The primary shades play about like coiled wire ready to bounce off the canvass. Already, there are indications as to where this style will lead in more recent compositions.
A mental landscape, first evident in grounded and sometimes oppressive structures of earlier works is abstracted into colored shapes. Gross-Marks painted “Landscape” (1997) around the same time as “Passing Through”. The geometric grid in both compositions provides an anchor that the artist abandoned soon thereafter.
While “Landscape” introduced a map-like quality, the arial viewpoint is made even clearer in a slightly later composition, “Twilight” (1998). It represents another map-like approach, as if one is that soaring hang-glider looking down upon even fields, towns, and developments. This view from the kite allows the viewer to soar above the cares of day to day life.
“Dancing Snakes” (1998) and “Windmills” (1998) express to full development of this immersion into the geometric and orderly world of colored shapes, creating rhythm with geometric forms. Gross-Marks allows the color to create its own world of fantasy and brightness, giving the viewer an inner feeling of space.
EXPLOSION
The current phase of Elisabeth Gross-Mark's style has its beginnings in 1999, at the same time that she switched from using oil paints to acrylics. The new medium may have played a part in the experimentalism. Both “Dreamscape” and “The Dream” (1999) were produced in this period when the artist teases the viewer with dancing landscapes, almost reminiscent of a traditional Chinese landscape held in tension like a circus juggler with many balls.
In the most recent works, the clear lines disappear behind a mask of mottled color, as we move from “Fly A Kite” (2000) to “Moonscape” and “Expanded Dimension” (2001), and most recently “Universal Motion” (2004). Increasingly, the color explodes from its prismatic boundaries. Artist Elizabeth Gross-Marks continues to experiment playfully with color.
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HERE to view other amazing art at
Shangri-La, located at 156 East State Street, on The Commons, Ithaca, NY. Open daily from Noon to 6 PM. For more details call 607-272-6156, or 570-395-3423.
At 7 PM, May 7th Jazz artist Porter Smith performed for this special arts event. A romantic minstrel even in these lesser romantic days, Porter draws musical and poetic inspiration from nature and the divine. There is a palpable sadness and celebration in his high tenor voice that sooths the listener with songs of contemplation and life's longing. Over the last decade, Porter has recorded three CDs and traveled from New York to Boston, Mississippi, Los Angeles, and back to New York. He has recently gathered an ensemble of fine Jazz musicians: Ken Foster on guitar, Eric Aceto on violin, Diana Leigh and Heather Moran on vocals.
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