Paul Resika
Lori Bookstein Fine Art is pleased to announce an exhibition of recent paintings by Paul Resika. This is the artist’s eighth solo show at the gallery.
For this exhibition, Resika will present a series of recent paintings focusing on variations of a singular still life theme: a pitcher of flowers and two shells. While some compositions are executed in a painterly, albeit naturalistic style, others are stripped down to highly-keyed geometric abstractions. In the more naturalistic canvases, Resika renders the shell and vase motif with lush details that bring the objects to life. Expressive floral decorations on the pitcher echo the very flowers they contain, while a shelf on which the pitcher and shells rest grounds the still life to create real, tangible space. In his more abstract compositions, Resika reduces the objects to their basic geometric shapes. The vase is stripped of its decorative pattern and the shelf disappears altogether. Instead, the objects appear to float against various bold color fields. Overall, this recent series of still life paintings demonstrates a symbiosis of abstraction and represenation that has been at the very core of Resika’s oeuvre.
Paul Resika (b. 1928, New York, New York) studied under Hans Hofmann as a teenager in New York and Provincetown before departing for Venice and Rome in 1950 to study the old masters. After casting aside Hofmann’s abstract principles, his Italian palette turned sober and descriptive. Upon his return to the United States, Resika devoted himself increasingly to the exploration of light and color, and the synthesis of abstraction and representation. Over his eight decade-long career, Resika has exhibited at the Peridot Gallery, Graham Modern, Long Point Gallery, Provincetown, Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, Hackett-Freedman Gallery, San Francisco, and Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, New York. Resika splits his time between New York and Truro, Massachusetts.
Resika’s work is included in the collections of the Hood Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Addison Gallery among numerous others. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship (1984) and has been elected Academician at the National Academy of Design (1978) and the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1994).
Paul Resika: Recent Paintings will be on view from April 28 – June 4, 2016. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, April 28th from 6:00-8:00 pm. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10:30 am to 6:00 pm. For additional information, please contact the gallery at (212) 750-0949 or at joseph@loribooksteinfineart.com.