ROBERT COURTRIGHT

Robert Courtright's oeuvre is a visual mutation between imprint and drawing. His work, voluntarily austere and without needless hyperbole, abuse or complacency, reassures and gratifies the viewer by its imaginative construction and sensitive chromatization.

Arranging the components of his collages to reveal subtle permutations of color and texture, these stackedrectangles, resembling architectural forms, explore and create a unique pictorial reading. Even if his painted rectangles are held in place by simply a spot of glue, the "play" that is allowed between the support and the protective glass causes their shadows to move the immobile. They are like the surfaces of buildings or like tile terraces made vertical.

As J. Bowyer Bell has written, “Courtright … offers the best of two possible worlds. There is the ideal work, carefully planned, carefully executed, cool, withdrawn, a matter of concept over adventure, a grid imposing order. There is, however, more to what you see than what you first see. Even if few have visuals ... all offer pattern. If the grid dominates as pattern, the real visual drama is elsewhere - in the perception of each viewer. The grid merges into the whole, color moves across the surface, differences in intensity appear, sight changes are made significant, an image rises from the squares, from the object. There is nothing minimal, nothing cold, nothing as exercise in the ultimate image. Each is an adventure for the eye.”

Years ago, chancing upon a shop displaying paper masks copied from the comedia dell'arte, Robert Courtright began to think about faces. Over the years these faces have evolved into his “Masks” series - which he executes both in cast bronze and cast paper. He constantly plays with the "faceness" of these faces, altering them through imaginative and resourceful manipulation of collage and paint. Some of his masks sport tiny eyes - or a round O of a mouth - or eyebrows impressed into his material. There are humorous masks, decorous masks, austere masks - whatever he has used for his mold effects the end result.

His cast paper collages are a visual mutation between imprint and drawing. These collages reassure and please the viewer by their imaginative construction and discerning use of color.
His work is in many significant university, museum, and corporate collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, The Phillips Collection, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Carnegie Institute.