glazed surface becomes a limited field for playfully
complex subtleties of reflected light from neon and
other commercial signs. The coloration is warm, but
in spite of the explicit recording, “Extra Dry" might
be subtitled “extra cool." The subject of “Extra Dry”
is dcpthless space, light, and reflections, all contrasted
and interdependent.
Photography provides invaluable assistance and
control for the technical realist. To realize “Extra
Dry" Beyer worked from photographs and slides,
generally multiple views. Slide projection augmented
by freehand drawing followed. Visual information
was selected, then emphasized, simplified or elimi
nated, resulting in a distillation of images. In these
thematic concerns and technical approaches the artist
is in league with Richard Estes, Robert Cottingham
and what is practically a school of reflection painters.
Reflections from urban surfaces abound in the
work of another technical realist, Joseph Pitts. “Red
BMW,” 1978, continues Bayer’s glazed mirrored
world from an equally unemotional disposition but
captures reflections during the day. Sections of late-
model cars parked in a nondescript urban setting are
seen as if in a brief encounter by a passing motorist.
“Red BMW” might be termed a traffic vista, an all
too familiar fragment of the city environment.
Pitts, a native of Oxford, Mississippi, presents
twentieth century nature as the city and its standard
izing manifestations. The new nature presented is not
motivated by a spirit of urban optimism which
inspired earlier American artists such as Louis Loz-
owick, Joseph Stella, Prestin Dickinson and Hugh
Ferris. The automobiles glimpsed are not custom-
designed art objects like those found in Clarence
Mcaselle’s “Sunday in the Park,” or in the equally
meticulous representations by photo realist Tom
Blackwell. The autos in “Red BMS” are impersonal
objects.
“Red BMW” began as a one-man photography
session of possible subjects from multiple views and
was followed by an editing session of slides and pho
tographs. At times Pitts studied the slides in an
inverted manner in a search for such elements as
repetition of color and surface tension. This practice
is comparable to one used by Malcolm Morley who
painted “postcard” imagery on canvases which were
placed upside down, or to Chuck Close's technique of
painting immense portraits in horizontal zones,
beginning in the top left corner and eventually arriv
ing at the bottom of the work as in “John,” in pro
gress, 1972. All together, these methods address a
democracy of surface and composition, a legacy per
haps from Abstract Expressionism. When slide selec
tion was narrowed to a few similar views, the slides
were projected and drawn off, and editing of compo
sitional segments continued. The working slides and
often prints of the photos were retained for a time
near the painting as it progressed, but were then put
away, as Joseph Pitts related in a telephone interview.
At that point the arena of interest became the
surface and its composition, which in the completed
state produces disquieting relationships of tension.
“Red BMW” presents a forgettable slide of urbanity
but is not forgettable as a painting because of its
sensuous surface, among other factors.
For Michael Rogers, a Memphis, Tennessee, paint
er, inclusion in the technical realism show may seem
quite incorrect for his “Untitled.” I his work with its
startling illusion, in fact, visual deceit, would seem to
belong to the trompe I'oeil tradition. Yet, detective
work into Roger’s attitudes does not support a
trompe I'oeil intention.
His “Untitled,” 1978, resulted from an attempt to
make the real (a clever illusion of an actual piece of
paper and tape) coexist and juxtapose with the unreal
(a painted illusion of nondescript material imme
diately accepted as a painted illusion). The images
were chosen because in the artist’s opinion they were
part of the student painter’s environment which is
taken for granted -still life props and debris. For this
and other recent paintings, the artist was influenced
as much by reading as looking. Kulterman’s New
Realism was read, reflected upon, and even appeared
in an earlier painting by Rogers as a still-life object.
“Under the Influence," 1978, shows the aforemen
tioned book laying Hat and open to black-and-white
reproductions of Chuck Closes’s portraits of friends.
“Under the Influence” was autobiographical but may
indicate the far-reaching effects of print media art
information on many of the other technical realists
working in the South.
I he sculpture in the plastic realism part of the
‘Extra Dry," by Albin Beyer, 1976, 45Vi -V 33'A. oil on
canvas.
show refers to both a technical stance and to an
immediately implied distance of artificiality. The first
impressions gained by beholders of “plastic realism"
may revolve around the malleable character of the
works, but this reaction evaporates upon realization
that freedom of form has been throttled by self-
imposed limitation of mimicry. For example, “Rain
Spout," 1978, by Judson Wilcox, Birmingham, Ala
bama, resembles the metal or plastic drain spouts on
the exteriors of most homes and commercial build
ings. This is true in its physical dimensions (100" x 12"
x 15"), its monochromatic color, and its grooves or
fluting. When placed against a brick wall in a gallery,
one might expect water to flow front it onto the floor.
“Rain Spout” is shiny and appears metallic but, in
terms ol guttering apparatus, is not functional. It is a
summary statement of the thousands of urban arti
cles confronting people in daily, contemporary
society, which arc not considered interesting or aes
thetic by most.
