Goodbye Mr. Natkin, And Goodbye Morgan Lehman Gallery

  Make no mistake. Robert Natkin, who died last April in Danbury, was an important painter. Anyone whose work roused the ire of Hilton Kramer, the country’s leading conservative art critic, and the admiration of Robert Hughes, Time magazine’s hugely respected critic, deserves attention. And the White Gallery is giving him both respect and attention in a fine retrospective opening on Lakeville Gallery Night Sept. 4, 5 to 7 p.m.

   Natkin lived many lives. Born and educated in Chicago, he was inspired early by Jackson Pollock and the serious abstract expressionists. When he and his wife opened the Wells Street Gallery in the city’s Old Town, they concentrated on emerging artists from the abstract school.

   After relocating to New York, Natkin fell under the influence of Willem de Kooning, as his paintings — now filled with vibrant colors and made with palette knife as well as brush ­— showed. After a first trip to Europe, he produced the famous Field Mouse series of paintings inspired by one of Ezra Pound’s loveliest translations of a Chinese poem: “And the days are not full enough/ And the nights are not full enough/ And life goes by/ Like a field mouse/ Running through the grass not touching.â€�

   Natkin responded to the field mouse’s energy with his own. He painted constantly, showed for the first time in England at an exhibit at Bath, where critic Peter Fuller, who loathed abstractionism, became entranced with him and his work. Together they produced a BBC documentary on the relationship between art and psychoanalysis, equating Natkin’s illusion of space in his work, the “inside/outsideâ€� with the “self/not-selfâ€� of analysis.

   Ultimately, Natkin’s paintings require no such heavy outside explanation.

    They are vibrant, intensely colorful. Forms are layered on forms to suggest that they float in space. They are calm and serene, almost embarrassingly intimate. But they are not easy: You need to look at them a long time to go beyond the cheerful, happy color for the hidden depths. And depths there are.

   Gallery Night will also welcome Ellen Kozak’s work to Argazzi Gallery.  Kozak, who teaches at Pratt, paints unexpected landscapes that are part impressionistic, part abstract. The pictures are luminous, with an eerie, almost liquid surface that can be haunting.

   And, sadly, this Gallery Night will be the last for Morgan Lehman Gallery, which is closing its Lake-ville space permanently. Sally Morgan and Jay Lehman’s eyes for contemporary as well as the more traditional artists were unique. They will be missed.

     “A Life in Art:  Robert Natkinâ€� is at the White Gallery through Oct. 3. The gallery is at 342 Main St., Lakeville. Call 860-435-1029 for hours.

     “Ellen Kozakâ€� is at Argazzi Gallery through Oct. 3. The gallery is at 22 Millerton Road, Lakeville. Call 860-435-8222 for hours.

 

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