Schwarzwald

Since the late 1970s, Jonathan Lasker has not only been creating abstract paintings, but forging new territory for the genre. His paintings function as both object and picture, being simultaneously self-contained and metaphorical. They assert flatness and champion materiality while implying illusionistic space and referencing external cues. Conflict between geometry and gesture, surface and depth, figure and ground, as well as ideas and things abound. In Schwarzwald, an example of the artist’s early work, areas of paint vigorously applied with a brush juxtapose those deliberately smeared on with a palette knife. A variety of shapes and forms, all with unique material properties, are layered in a way that creates a sense of depth and space. As a result, this abstract painting can be read as a landscape, one populated with convoluted pathways, mountain ranges, and woodlands densely packed with old-growth trees—perhaps the Black Forest of southwest Germany, to which the title alludes.