Robert Berlind at Tibor de Nagy and the Neuberger Museum - Brief Article

In his museum exhibition catalogue, Robert Berlind writes: "Thoughts come and go, meanings accrue and develop and dissipate. But any meaning not predicated on the particulars of how a painting looks will at best be generic." The assertion doesn't quite do justice to his achievement; throughout his career, Berlind has contended with not only the surfaces of nature, but also their ability to conjure up larger themes. In both the museum exhibition, devoted to work from 1982 through '96, and the gallery show of recent work, his double attentiveness--to the appearance of things and to their capacity for hidden meanings--yields lyric passages that evoke feelings of transcendence.

As Irving Sandier points out in his insightful essay, Berlind has paid close attention to subjects seen on the quick, in a glimpse. The shimmering motion of water is important to the artist; puddles and the images reflected in them are recurrent subjects. The large oil Autumn Water (1995) is a musical play of yellow-golds, browns and dark tans hovering on the bluish-gray water, which reflects a large cloud at the center. The yellow leaves on the upper right are set off by darker colors on the bottom, while the reflection of tall, thin trees angling across gives the composition a bit of rational order.

In this and other paintings--for example, Winter Reflections (1992) and Damaged Woods III (1991)--the brushwork is loose, evoking a floating world in which appearances and what Berlind calls "the intimacies of water" converge and break apart. The grace of his compositions suggests an authorial intelligence at one with water, branches and leaves, which frees the artist of intention and self. He writes, "When gazing at the live surface of a creek, pond, or bay, I lose track of what it is I am looking at, forgetting for the while where and even who I am. How to include that in a painting?"

The recent paintings continue Berlind's devotion to images of movement; moreover, his gift for poised composition, a quality linking him to Alex Katz, remains evident. In Harbor (1996), dark gray-green water forms a quiet ground for yellow leaves scattered across the surface; a dock is barely reflected at the top right of the painting. The contrast between the leaves' color and the dark deepness of the water is quietly resonant. Berlind's studies of the Delaware River portray rapids surging over darkened rock. Delaware III. (1998) is particularly powerful in its depiction of whirling eddies and shifting crosscurrents.

Some of Berlind's strongest paintings depict trees, branches and foliage. Light on limbs in Dark and Bright in May I (1998) captures the moment when the evening suddenly gives way to night. Here, as elsewhere, Berlind's deft rendering of nature results in moments of intricate, eloquent abandon.

[The museum exhibition will appear at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Feb. 1-Mar. 12.]

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