John Ferren at Katharina Rich Perlow

The colorful hard-edge paintings in this attractive show represented the last body of work by John Ferren (d. 1970), who began to execute it after a 196364 stay in Beirut and elsewhere in the Middle East, Pakistan and India (as the first recipient of an American Specialists Abroad grant from the State Department). A surface reading of the simplified forms in these paintings suggests Op-art influences, and the large, electrically hued works do indeed capture the eye. Yet often the artist employs such forms as the mandala or yoni, connecting to Eastern symbolism and reflecting a spiritual frame of mind (he was interested in Zen philosophy).

Radial I (1968) consists of a red slit shape placed in the center, within an hourglass form filled with stripes of different widths and colors. The hourglass, in turn, is bracketed by a pair of thin red marks like parentheses. Across the front plane, the artist painted curving lines, and along both edges are thicker vertical stripes of yellow and tan. The arrangement of forms creates the effect of an aura, so that the painting might be interpreted as an homage to the mystical force of pure composition.

In another large painting, titled Green, Violet, Orange, Red (1969), a red stripe--a nod to Barnett Newman's zip--runs down the center, bisecting an organically curving shape in green that recalls the squat physicality of a fertility figurine. To either side are slit shapes in violet or orange. Though Ferren's painting clearly hails from the second half of the 20th century, its organic forms subtly refer to cultures of a much earlier era.

Tabriz II (1969) consists of a series of thick and thin bands that relate it to color-field painting. The left half is mostly red, with a thin blue stripe running down its middle, while the right side is mostly blue, with a red and a green stripe placed next to each other fairly close to the edge. In the center is a series of four vertical stripes in dark blue, bright red, violet and blue-purple. The title is taken from the Iranian city, contextualizing the rich color scheme. Like the other works in the show, it reminds us of both the ancient and the modern spirit.

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