Continuing through June 16, 2012
Over the years Bruce Cohen’s still-lifes have become less and less real. This is a good thing. This doesn't imply that earlier and less tightly wrought fruit-against-planes were not amply interesting. It is more that maturity and increasing mastery of his aesthetic process have refined and distilled a natural skill for verisimilitude into what is a voice and a visual position. Rather than deliver variations on what we see, perspectives tip eccentrically, often precipitously to add a subtle but palpable extra edge. Colors have deepened, surfaces are finished with a luster that is carefully worked, but not overly excessive, so that something as benign as tulips are now somehow, well, erotic.
This is true for the open windows that beckon, the bowls filled with lush little eatables, and yes, a wonderful tussled empty bed with pillows cast in the most interesting sort of light. If in Dutch views of the everyday we were expected to read a call to piety and understand the transience of the senses, this cache of lovely work is its antithesis. And if art reflects the artist's personal experience, one would have to conclude that Cohen is getting friskier, more comfortable in his skin with age.
Published courtesy of ArtSceneCal ©2012
