Ann Stautberg has nine photographs, hand-colored with oil, on view at Barry Whistler, all characteristically titled with a kind of date stamp, for example 1-10-12, PM (all works 2012). They are nighttime landscapes, populated with cars’ taillights, shadowy trees, and buildings silhouetted against moonlight and starlight. Everything looks quiet. In 9-23-11, PM #1, a few lights gleam through the stand of trees in the distance, and another one onto the tops of the telephone wires and the passing car; it must be a street lamp. In 11-20-11, PM, the trace of two red taillights streaks across to the right, while a yellow glow hovers at the upper left. The shadows and reflections pool on the oily surface of the asphalt below. In 10-11-11, PM, the curve in the road wheels around in front of us, and headlights illuminate the grassy hillocks on the left, while the moon glows blue above. The pictures are redolent of what we don’t see – what is just around the corner, coming around the bend or just passed over the hill – leaving us alone with our thoughts.
There are also seven works on paper by Richard Serra in the second gallery: four from the Trajectory, Extension, and Double Transversal series (all 2004), and three from the Path and Edges series(all 2007). Casual viewers might be surprised to hear about a Serra work on paper that isn’t a verb list or a piece of agitprop. Isn’t Serra’s work concerned with shaping physical space in an aggressive manner, and doesn’t Serra usually work with steel, or at least with lead? In fact, presence, power and force can come through for Serra on paper too, and a big exhibition of his drawings has recently arrived in Houston (from New York and San Francisco), to which the collection of prints here is a more intimate counterpart. The etchings are big and weighty-looking, just as one would expect from the counterparts to the Torqued Ellipses and Tilted Arc. It is safe to say that these are among the most muscular etchings in recent history.
Image at top: Richard Serra, Path and Edges #4, 2007 (detail). 1 color etching; 21 1/2 x 38 1/2″
