April
01, 2011 WADE WILSON ART // APRIL 1 // 6-8PM
Wade Wilson Art is pleased to announce a special exhibit pairing the leading European and
the leading American painters from the Concrete Painting movement featuring new paintings
by the American painter Joseph Marioni and the German painter Peter Tollens.
Joseph Marioni and Peter Tollens, the leading figures of the Concrete Painting Movement
in the United States and Europe respectively, continue as trans-Atlantic colleagues. The
Concrete painting Movement finds its roots in early Modernism in works by De Stijl artist
Theo Van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian, Theo van Doesburg first defined the movement
saying, “Art should receive nothing from Nature’s formal properties or from sensuality or
sentimentality. We want to exclude lyricism, dramaticism, symbolism, etc. The picture
should be constructed entirely from purely plastic elements, that is to say, planes and
colours. A pictorial element has no other significance than ‘itself’ and therefore the
picture has no other significance than ‘itself.’” (20th-Century Index, Dr. Michael Delahoyde)
The movement grew and proceeded into the 20th century with painters such as Jackson
Pollock, Mark Rothko, Brice Marden, and Robert Ryman. The legacy of the Concrete
Painting Movement continues led by Joseph Marioni and Peter Tollens whose
philosophies and artistry continue the legacy of this movement and whose recent
paintings comprise this exhibit.
