| Harry C. Doolittle’s innovatively installed exhibition, at Broadway Gallery NYC was a surprising and imaginative experience for the viewer. Working abstractly, American artist Doolittle evinces a spiritual energy that is direct and simple. |  |
Lauren Goldsmith on Harry Doolittle
Harry C. Doolittle’s innovatively installed exhibition, at Broadway Gallery NYC was a surprising and imaginative experience for the viewer. Working abstractly, American artist Doolittle evinces a spiritual energy that is direct and simple. An exploration of visual language with a deeper focus on the complementary dialogue between content, space, and the perceptual process, Doolittle’s striking paintings draw us into an enigmatic world of fantasy, and spirit.
Displacement, sequences, stratification, viscosity, morphological and semantic registers are the elements with which he explores these notions. Seeing reproductions of the luminescent, brightly hued abstract assemblage paintings by Doolittle do not do these images justice; he is a rare kind of artist whose work can only fully be understood in person. It is only when standing before these intricately incised and subtly rendered creations that their true radiance can fully emanate. In fact, it is Doolittle’s unique approach and process that get lost in the reproduction, the results of which can only be viewed up close, when the painting truly comes to life before the viewer. This exhibition offers viewers the chance to truly experience a unique artist and his work in person.
What does exist within the exhibition is a vitality and rigor that is descriptive of a body of work reaching far beyond the confines of reality. As well as the metaphysical, which is so often the retreat of the artist, there is color and movement, warmth, humor, and a kind of illustrative conformity that references both the past and present trends of the visual arts. The ingenuity of Doolittle is certainly part of the reason why the exhibition is so engaging.
No stranger to the art world, or his predecessors—including Piet Mondrian and Joseph Albers—Doolittle expands and improvises on the modernist vocabulary of abstraction using his own distinctive voice. Self-trained, the artist instinctually works automatically, employing his dreams as a rich source of vivid imagery and vibrant color. The results of this innovative and spontaneous process are kaleidoscopic bejeweled surfaces that evidence his idiosyncratic compositional strategies and sense of design.
The most exciting element of the exhibition was the installation of images encased in glass suspended from the walls. These hovering compositional constructions transcend the space they inhabit. Calling to mind Alexander Calder’s mobiles, these pieces provoke not just a visual reaction, but also a physical reaction to the viewer. Operating as sculpture as much as painting, these images are notable for their geometric compositions, and use of rectilinear form. Doolittle is no stranger to new challenges. Having explored a vast array of mediums, he creates work that is vast and varied
His own relationships clearly inform his paintings and unique color palette. He layers colors to create the razor-sharp and gauzy textures that coexist in his work, best exemplified in the pieces on display at the Broadway Gallery NYC. His colorful blending of unique theory with abstraction reveals his physical involvement in the work—paint has been applied with passion, leaving behind a verifiable artistic signature as testimony for the viewer. Color and form undulate in florid compositions that form an interior dialogue on the intersections of space, place, time, memory, culture, and history.
Doolittle’s new series of works in acrylic emphasize the motif of a spiritual journey that is at once historically embedded and intensely personal. The artist’s work takes us back to our very beginnings, before written laws, received wisdom, and force of habit, all but shackled our individual creativity and freedom of expression. Doolittle’s works impact ours senses, awaken our emotional memory, and empower us to see the universe and beyond. A painting should not end on the canvas, the artist states. It should encourage viewers to create worlds of their own. The work of Doolittle allows us to do just that. Passionately committed to exploring the inherent properties, color, and power of each medium, Doolittle expresses an ardor for materials that is evident in both his paintings and collages. As an experimental and dynamic artist, Doolittle effortlessly convinces us that he has not only perfected his craft, but that he also has an impeccable instinct for the emotionally evocative power of color, movement, texture, and shape. His works evoke a sense of abundance; swirling arabesques of color, in brilliant and vivid shades of blue, yellow, and green, are rich, luxurious, sensuous, fluid, and overflowing.
The construction of Doolittle’s art, from composition, to the laying-down of shapes, colors, and textures, transports us to another dimension; each work tells a story based on the artist’s search for the truth. It is here, basking in the light of his forms that our own thoughts and ideas come into play. At its core, Doolittle’s work can be identified by its commitment to an aesthetic that celebrates and promotes the sensible and emotive power of art.
