Pat Steir (1940)
Deer Waterfall
1990 | Oil on canvas | 198 x 243 cm
The occidental tradition generally relates the dripping technique to the notion of expression, of energy release, unrestrained by representational requirements. Pat Steir’s Waterfall series of paintings puzzles the onlooker: the work is swaying on an edge between abstraction and representation.
It may be a product of the dripping technique, but it also calls Asian painting to mind, particularly the Chinese landscapes of the 17th century. The paint drippings have become representational, implying that Stair goes one step further than the New York Abstract Expressionist School. She loops the loop of abstraction. This apparent incompatibility seems to be a key feature of Steir’s artistic bearings since the mid-sixties.
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