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Marco Breuer at Roth Horowitz - New York
Art in America, Dec, 2002 by Jonathan Goodman
Marco Breuer's recent show included more than 20 images from his series "Observations in Color." Breuer's methods as a photographer are unusual. He first exposes the paper to light so that it turns black. He then attacks it through mechanical means, using paint thinners or sandpaper to get at the layers of color inherent in the chromogenic paper's emulsion. In some cases, after the paper is scrubbed, it is taken back to the darkroom and contact-printed: the paper is pressed against another sheet, so that the image passes from the first sheet to the second, resulting in a reversal of image and color Then Breuer reworks the image, folding and sanding it to realize a complex array of effects. No negative is used in the creation of the picture.
Usually we accept a photograph as a given image--we don't consider the process of its application to paper. But in Breuer's work, it is the process itself that interests him; he finds the range of imagery resulting from his excoriations expressive in ways that are different from conventionally developed photographs. His sanded chromogenic prints often look closer to paintings than to photos. In Untitled (C-36), 2002, for example, the visual effect is an allover pattern of white, whorled shapes, edged with organic curves. Small yellow dots, which look like points of light, appear on the black ground. Almost hallucinatory in its tightly coiled repetitions and tiny spots of incandescence, the abstract design defies its categorization as photography.
The smallish Untitled (C-69), 2002, offers a finely articulated, strongly patterned image of green and black horizontal striations, with small dots enlivening the surface. The texture is mostly even, with the exception of areas of black that take over the horizontal lines. It is a very cool and collected composition. Sometimes Breuer will set a screen over the paper before exposing it to the light, so that a repetitive pattern results. Untitled (C-63), 2001, consists of rows of blue dots outlined in a yellowish brown; in its elegant simplicity the print looks for all the world like a Minimalist drawing Breuer's abstract photographs move from representation toward a declaration of nearly scientific impartiality. His exploratory works are to be admired for their inventiveness, which is based on hands-on manipulations that enable him to physically shape his imagery.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group
