Disturbance and Beauty in Stadia Paintings: Guest Post by Elizabeth Sadoff

Stadia: New Work by Anne Sherwood Pundyk

at Susan Eley Fine Art, New York, NY

November 7 - January 5th, 2014

I am initially taken by the ferocious activity of Pundyk’s brushwork in this latest exhibition of her work, Stadia.  I am also struck by how familiar this brushwork is, particularly where resolute lines are articulated.  I know that I am revisiting a familiar choreography and this is a pleasing revelation.  For all the back and forth laying down and subsequent pushing back of her paint, the artist’s confident, economical draftsmanship serves to direct her surface.  Her line work implies a narrative, but it never fully oversteps. A pure delight is elicited by the immediacy of her compositions and bracing colors.

I appreciate the equilibrium that Pundyk achieves in her paintings; disturbance goes hand in hand with overarching beauty.  Ultimately, the elemental disquiet of her painted forms is tempered by a luscious reverence for flesh, for voluptuousness that speaks of a wholly feminine profile. Subversiveness is folded into a visual harmony - a complexity that finds resolution by virtue of the artist’s worldly vision placing real womanliness in an actual context.

Elizabeth Sadoff

Elizabeth Sadoff Associates Fine Art Advisory

"Shadow Realm," 2013, Oil, Acrylic and Charcoal on Linen, 42" x 46"

 "Roots," 2013, Oil, Acrylic and Charcoal on Linen, 36" x 36"

"Self-taught," 2013, Oil and Acrylic on Linen, 63" x 60"