EDGAR FRANCESCHI
Perhaps that is why New York artist Edgar Franceschi’s acrylic and mixed-media canvases are disturbing. In these large works colors and patterns are juxtaposed in such an eclectic manner that they often seem to border on 60s flower-power kitschiness. But certain recurring motifs express a viewpoint that is extremely critical of recent modernist styles championed by the mainstream art world. The resulting work is so angry that it is difficult to like; but it is so confidently executed that it is hard to dismiss. And it makes us feel guilty about our mainstream coolness.
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The show’s first piece, Two Illustrations That the World Is What You Make of It, introduces a couple of elements that appear in most of the remaining 11 works: a wide graphic brush mark and a three-dimensional picture frame. On the right side of the composition a man’s dark silhouette on a white background confronts us. Numerous white brush marks running through the figure make it seem as though parts of him have disappeared into the background. A painted palette and a real palette knife rest against the figure’s chest. Around his head float several geometric forms filled with abstract patterns. To the figure’s left a pair of picture frames enclose more abstract designs.
The successful organization of this piece is lacking in Franceschi’s two largest works. Each is a long horizontal canvas featuring a huge geometric design painted over a background filled with imagery. The large rectilinear design of On Listening to Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony is painted in messy expressionistic strokes of blacks and blues. Its form carries repugnant connotations because it resembles a Nazi swastika. This resemblance, coupled with the domineering size and the confrontational, in-your-face presentation, makes the work so heavy-handed that it is almost insulting. If Franceschi intended to cancel out the pleasing effect of the background’s beautifully painted rows of records, he certainly achieved his aim.
