OLI SIHVONEN,(1921-1991)
The 3x3 Paintings: 1975-77
15 JANUARY - 12 FEBRUARY 2005
installation view
1. 3x3, Violet, Dk. Green, Br. Ochre, nd
Oil on canvas
30 x 30 inches
9238
2. 3x3, Blue, Green + Brown, 1975
Oil on canvas
30 x 30 inches
9063
3. 3x3, Red, Red, Dk. Green, 1977
Oil on canvas
36 x 36 inches
9187
4. 3x3, Blue, Titanium + Lemon Yellow, nd
Oil on canvas
30 x 30 inches
9189
5. 3x3, Yellow, Ochre + Red, nd
Oil on canvas
30 x 30 inches
9062
6. 3x3, Yellow + Dp. Grey on Pink, nd
Oil on canvas
24 x 24 inches
9197
7. 3x3, Dk. Green, Red, Yellow, nd
Oil on canvas
36 x 36 inches
9188
8. 3x3, Blue, Tan, Red, nd
Oil on canvas
36 x 36 inches
9160
9. 3x3, Violet + Greens, nd
Oil on canvas
30 x 30 inches
9237
installation view
installation view
installation view
Sandra Gering Gallery is pleased to present our second exhibition of paintings by OLI SIHVONEN. Included in the exhibition will be canvases from Sihvonen’s series known as the 3x3 Paintings. With luscious colors and subtly textured, velvety surfaces, these works epitomize Sihvonen’s ability to create visual complexity and intensity through deceptively simple compositions.
Oli Sihvonen was born in Brooklyn in 1921. After serving in World War II, he attended Black Mountain College where the Bauhaus teachings of Josef Albers were deeply influential to his intellectual and visual approach to art. This influence is especially clear in the 3x3 Paintings, created between 1975-77, a series of square paintings in which the canvas is divided into six vertical bars.
Sihvonen had previously explored the very Bauhaus concept of the divided square. In an essay about the 3x3 Paintings, Ken Canfield says Sihvonen used "the divided square as the basic building unit from which geometric abstract paintings were constructed… But, as was typical of his working style, he moved from complexity to simplicity, working through the possible variations as he refined and limited what the paintings might be allowed to say." Canfield goes on to explain Sihvonen’s pursuit of simplification:
"…the earliest dated versions (of 3x3 Paintings) have horizontal cross-bar elements intersecting the vertical bands that are characteristic throughout the series. But at some point the horizontal elements begin to appear less frequently. The later dates relate preponderantly to paintings simplified to six strong vertical elements in a 3-2-1 color sequence moving from dark to light or the reverse… Although he did not completely abandon the earlier format, he saw that the forms and their color relationships could carry the composition. He was free to see where color in its simplest relationships could take him."
In looking back on the 3x3 series in 1979, Sihvonen felt that he had "explored the notions of multi-temporality: Flow, rhythm, beat, growth... etc., and found that these different manifestations of temporal phenomena could co-exist within an art work." This analysis perfectly describes the experience of viewing these dynamic canvases.
Oli Sihvonen’s paintings are in the permanent collections of numerous major institutions, including: the Museum of Modern Art, NY; the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA; the Art Institute of Chicago, IL; the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; the Dallas Museum of Fine Art, TX. His work was recently exhibited in Daimler Chrysler’s exhibition Minimalism and After III.
This exhibition was organized with the generous collaboration of Canfield Gallery in Santa Fe, NM. It would not have been possible without the support of the Sihvonen Estate, or without the enthusiasm and assistance of Craig Cornelius.
