This 1983 gouache and ink work, Ships, reads as a stylized boat within a rigorously geometric, almost architectural framework. Blending a medley of circles, arcs, and rectilinear grids, this small painting evokes a dialogue between a concrete subject (a ship and its masts) and an abstract system of colored shapes.
Using a palette that centers on warm oranges, yellows, and brick tones, contrasted with strong blues and areas of pale lavender, the final image oscillates multi-dimensionally. Inked lines articulate edges,circles, and dotted arcs with graphic precision, reminiscent of technical drawing or stained-glass leading. This is due to how the gouache’s matte opacity was applied to build crisp, flat color fields.
At first glance, it appears as a flat, constructed pattern, Yet, technical aspects of the line and color application lead to subtle shifts within each band (for example, the brick-like pattern in the hull and the layered rectangles at the sides) enhance and liven the abstraction, creating a rhythmic, almost musical progression across the surface.
Ships has a family likeness to artworks of many twentieth century artists. The overlapping circles, arcs, and strong diagonals recall aspects of Kandinsky and others who linked geometry to rhythm, music, and convey spiritual or cosmic effects. The clear structural scaffolding, glowing color zones, and the integration of a real object (the ship) into a near abstract grid also brings to mind Constructivism. In addition, while aspects of Ships brings some of Mondrian’s pre pure grid compositions, it is more complex due to how a familiar subject serves as a pretext for exploring proportional relationships, curvature, and planar color.
Finally, the perspective in this compact painting is deliberately ambiguous. Defined to allow the viewer to read the image freely, the title, Ships, infers a vessel and encourages a narrative reading or a journey. At the same time, the repeated circle-within-circle and arc motifs can be read perceptually with the patterns leading the eye though the use of a language of multiple-sized circles and shapes.
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Amy Ione
Title: Ships
Date: 1983
Medium: Gouache and ink on paper
Dimensions: 12×9 inches
Signed
Catalog Number: Ships
This painting is in a private collection.
Exhibitions
1988
The Last Picture Show, Walnut Creek Civic Arts Gallery Invitational, Walnut Creek, CA.