Vibrant canvases intensify exhibit ‘Joy of looking’ shown in painting

BANGOR – There are only six paintings in the new Al Held exhibition at the University of Maine Museum of Art.

That’s all that would fit.

The huge, rich, meticulously crafted canvases in “Expanding Universe: The Recent Paintings of Al Held,” which opens today and runs through March 27, take full advantage of the museum’s new space. The sheer size – the largest painting measures 9 square feet – is impressive, but the geometric patterns, bold colors and mind-bending abstract imagery combine to draw the viewer into Held’s dizzying world.

“This is not a window to look through, it’s a world we’ve stepped into,” Wally Mason, the museum’s director, said. “They are about the joy of painting, the joy of chroma, the joy of looking.”

With Held’s paintings, looking is an active process. From afar, they remind the viewer of giant computer screensavers, with their wormholes and patterns and three-dimensional planes. But his color sense and painstaking attention to detail become apparent as the viewer approaches the canvas. Each curve, angle and line is precisely taped, painted and cut away with a knife. Mistakes or discarded ideas are sanded away, removing any evidence of the human hand.

“This final stage is important because Held is more interested in a viewer’s perception of what is painted than in the matters of who painted it or how it was painted,” David Rubin, curator for the Contemporary Arts Center of New Orleans, wrote in the exhibition catalog.

Held was born in 1928 and studied painting in New York and Paris. When he returned to New York in 1953, he began painting in the Abstract Expressionist style. In the 1960s, he went on to teach at Yale, but he continued to paint, working first in black and white and later in brilliant color. His current body of work shows a mastery of illusion that is no easier on the mind than Escher’s work.

“They imply a pictorial space, but the more you look at them, rather than understand the three dimensions more, they become more confusing,” Mason said. “He draws you into the space and then he completely pulls the wool over your eyes.”

In an adjacent gallery, “Prospect of Light: Images from Pinhole and Plastic Cameras,” provides a smaller, more subtle foil to Held’s universe. For the show, Mason teamed up with Tenants Harbor photographer Jonathan Bailey to assemble a collection of images made with limited technology.

In a time of digital everything, these photographs show how alluring imperfection can be. In the hands of Willie Anne Wright, a black-and-white image of a girl in a mausoleum is at once spooky and nostalgic. Stonington artist Anne-Claude Coty uses metalsmithing and bookmaking techniques to turn her photographs into engaging objects. And Doug Lucak’s diminutive, intimate images of his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, show beauty in the smallest of details.

“There is an undercurrent of people who are working against the grain,” Mason said. “Photographers are forcing themselves to seek a simpler moment.”

While the moment may be simpler, the images are complex, sophisticated, and worthy of contemplation.

“Expanding Universe: The Recent Paintings of Al Held” and “Prospect of Light: Images from Pinhole and Plastic Cameras” are on view through March 27 at the University of Maine Museum of Art, 40 Harlow St., Bangor. In addition, “Drawing as Thinking” will be on view at the museum’s Zillman Gallery. The museum is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. For information, call 561-3350.