Season of the West

Tradition and innovation come together for The West: New Ways/Old Visions.

A A A Comments By Michael Paglia Thursday, Jan 27 2000

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A different take on landscape painting is seen in the photo-realist landscapes by Jim Colbert, a Colorado artist with more than a decade of local exhibitions under his belt. Like many others in The West, Colbert is interested in ecological issues. In "Glenwood Canyon (Pictures of You)," an oil on canvas from 1999, he shows the construction of Interstate 70 through the once-pristine canyon. The scarred cliffs are straight ahead behind the graded canyon floor, which is dotted with steel and concrete pylons under construction. Also poignant is "Raton Overlook," a 1996 oil on canvas in which a high-tension wire tower is dead center on the horizon.

The Colberts lead us back to the front of the CVA, where Denver painter Carlos Frésquez has been put together with Colorado Springs sculptor Bill Burgess.

"Leadville, Colorado," by Eric Paddock, color photograph.

"Glenwood Canyon (Pictures of You)," by Jim Colbert, oil.

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Frésquez is represented by two easel-sized paintings and a mural-sized piece. The mural, 1999's "Third World Aztlan," is painted in mixed media on a corrugated fiberglass panel. It's fabulous. Small paintings -- one a santo of a crucifix, the other a copy of a Picasso -- are hung from the painting. There are also images of a Mexican cowboy, a farm worker and an old car, which are painted directly on the fiberglass. Somewhat more conventional is one of the easel paintings, "Tsi-Mayoh (Chimayo): La Tierra Sagrada," an oil on panel from 1994 with a vessel filled with soil. As usual, these pieces concern the artist's Chicano heritage.

The three Burgess sculptures date from the 1980s and are not like his more recent work. In each, skeletal piles are constructed of welded steel. Wood and other objects are then attached, and the entire thing is painted in a polychrome finish. Though they are completely abstract, they do include items with a vaguely Western feel, such as animal horns and gnarled twigs.

Perisho cast her net far and wide to come up with this impressive show. And when you think about some of the obvious choices, like Chuck Forsman and John Hull, whom she left out, you get some idea of how pervasive the influence of the West and the Western landscape is on so many local artists. Perisho is right when she points out that it's the one thing unique to the art of our region.

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