RON MARTIN

Conclusions and Transfers
Conclusions and Transpositions

Opening Reception Saturday March 24, 2018 2-6pm

The Christopher Cutts Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of paintings by Ron Martin, executed in the late 1960s and the early 2000s. It is remarkable to state this is the gallery’s 19th solo exhibition of Martin’s work.

This exhibition, juxtaposes two bodies of work with comparable intentions. That is the pairing of two systemically identical paintings. This was first explored in 1968 with the Conclusions and Transfers, and then revisited in 2001 and 2002 with the Conclusions and Transpositions.

The Conclusions and Transfers are large format triangular shaped mechanically finished hard edge paintings. The Conclusions and Transpositions are much smaller in scale, 24 x 18 inches each, and evolved out of a body of work developed in the late 1990s called the Plan for Painting.

The obvious difference between these two series, besides scale and shape, is that though the Conclusions and Transpositions employ identical compositions, there are discernable differences due to the gestured application of the paint. The Conclusions and Transfers utilize paint rollers resulting in an even indistinguishable side by side collation.

The works in essence emphasize the most important dialogue when viewing the paintings, by placing the onus on the viewer to ascertain the similarities or differences between the seemingly identical paintings. Martin refers to this dialogue between viewer and object as the “Critical Subject”.

Exhibition catalogue available with essay by co-curator, Gregory Humeniuk