{"id":3507,"date":"2024-07-07T18:28:40","date_gmt":"2024-07-07T18:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dartmagazine.com\/?p=3507"},"modified":"2024-07-07T18:37:36","modified_gmt":"2024-07-07T18:37:36","slug":"john-meredith-last-breaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/?p=3507","title":{"rendered":"John Meredith: Last Breaths"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by D. Dominick Lombardi<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Installation
Installation view, (all photos courtesy of the Christopher Cutts Gallery)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The late paintings of John Meridith have a different sort of clarity than his earlier works, where black lines were used to clarify shapes, emphasize movement and forge a foreground. In the last decade of his life, when Meredith switched \u201c\u2026between cigarettes and bronchodilators, likely with a paintbrush in hand\u2026\u201d, he created paintings that are more distilled, direct and meditative. Already an introverted individual, in those last ten years of his life, he became even more reclusive knowing his days were numbered. This was especially true during the onset of his battle with emphysema. This dire reality appears to have pushed the artist toward a more transcendent vision, despite any anger he may have been feeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"John
John Meredith, Tangiers No II<\/em> (1990), oil on canvas, 72 x 60 inches<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The earliest of his late paintings here are all from 1990, and they are the five most hopeful and brightest works. Only Tangiers No II<\/em> has any reference of Meredith\u2019s use of black to clarify his earlier visions. At or just after the beginning of most of the paintings here, Meredith placed strips of tape to mask the white or lightly painted ground of the canvas. At some point in the painting process the tape was removed, and in many instances painted over a bit \u2013 or totally if the artist found that relatively clean stripe to be too imposing or distracting to the overall composition. In Tangiers No II<\/em>, the artist comes close to suggesting a portrait with strangely clownlike features. Any suggestion of humor that might enter one\u2019s thoughts here is quickly dispelled by the large, jet black swathes of paint that obliterate any indication of a mouth, while the splashes of paint thinner, probably turpentine, create purple, black and red drips indicating some sort of distress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"John
John Meredith, Reclining Figure<\/em> (1990), oil on canvas, 54 x 65 inches<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The most compelling work from the 1990\u2019s is Reclining Figure<\/em>. To the mostly primary colors of the red, yellow and blue backdrop, the artist adds wide sweeping strokes of heavily muddied white to suggest a lounging subject that is partially obscured by a wash of ochre over the figure\u2019s legs. The brilliance here is the way Meredith utilizes such a heavily contrasted paint application of the figure, as opposed to the rest of the painted surface to work in the greatly abstracted and simplified human form. Placed just right of center, the figure looks backlit by brilliant sunlight \u2013 a visual tour de force much greater than the sum of its parts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"John
John Meredith, Emperor<\/em> (1993), oil on canvas, 68 x 48 inches<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Then there are two paintings from 1993, which bring back the use of black lines \u2013 only this time it is more about creating rhythmic upward movement that is both alluring and impermeable in Emperor<\/em>, or a tangled trap of contrasting thoughts in Key Largo<\/em>. Then there are four paintings from 1994. The one named Untitled<\/em> is the most hopeful in palette and approach and reminds me very much of the serene and seductive paintings Matisse made while living in Nice. Conversely, Eroica<\/em> is the most disturbing work in the exhibition, and consists of two ghostly forms painted over a black ground that interact and look back at the viewer creating a chilling effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"John
John Meredith, Eroica<\/em> (1994), oil on canvas, 74 x 49 inches<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The two Untitled<\/em> paintings from 1997 show most profoundly, the way Meredith worked with masking tape. In both works, the tape is used as a tool to create structure and composition. Working within a very shallow space, the artist manages to create compelling spiritual depth. In their clarity and simplicity, these two paintings remind me of De Kooning\u2019s late works when his debilitating illness changed his approach and aesthetic. The one example from 1999, painted a year before his death, features four white haired feminine forms that intertwine like smoke from one of Meredith\u2019s many cigarettes. A late statement on how life, living, lust and death are fleeting and beyond our control, like smoke from a fire and Meredith is the flame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Meredith:<\/strong> Last Breaths<\/strong><\/em>,\u00a0June 6th \u2013 July 13th, 2024. Christopher Cutts Gallery, 21 Morrow Avenue, Toronto,\u00a0Ontario, Canada M6R 2H9 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by D. Dominick Lombardi The late paintings of John Meridith have a different sort of clarity than his earlier works, where black lines were used to clarify shapes, emphasize movement and forge a foreground. In the last decade of his life, when Meredith switched \u201c\u2026between cigarettes and bronchodilators, likely with a paintbrush in hand\u2026\u201d, he … <\/p>\n

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