artscope magazine: January/February 2010 Welcome Statement: Brian Goslow, managing editor Letters to the Editor roundtable - Three Professionals. One Question. cornered: a conversation with an art exhibition attendee FEATURED ARTIST GEORGE NICK - Reflections of an impermanent world Not Your Typical Photo Place - PHOTOPLACE GALLERY TARO SHINODA: LUNAR REFLECTIONS ODDLY PRETTY PAINTINGS - HANNAH COLE TANGIBLE EXPERIENCE: BRIAN KEITH STEPHENS Belonging and Longing - Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons: Works on Paper FIXED CHAOS at Montserrat SILENT CIRCLES: THE HEALING - Barbara Gagel FEATURE - Evolution: Five Decades of Printmaking by David Driskell FEATURE - Historic Japanese Kiri-E and Contemporary Tibetan Thangka GOLDEN LEGACY: Original Art From 65 Years Of Golden Books DECEIVINGLY SIMPLE - Charles Duback: Collages EMMA AMOS: HEROES AND FOLK GHOSTS OF THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE: ZUGUNRUHE wanderlust - The (Right) Brainpower Triangle: The Finest Free Art in Somerville and Cambridge community - THE KATE: A Little Gem With A Movie Star Name industry focus - BUY WHAT YOU LOVE education - SPACE TO DISCOVER: MASSART/FAWC LOW RESIDENCY MFA Capsule Previews

DECEIVINGLY SIMPLE - Charles Duback: Collages Elena Sarni June Fitzpatrick Gallery 112 High Street Portland, Maine February 1 through March 27 With a few exceptions, I’ve been covering important but extremely somber exhibitions over the past six months, ranging from “Body Mapping” at Bates College, which dealt with AiDS patients in third world countries, to Salt institute’s gripping show on America’s homeless youth. So i have to admit it was refreshing to enter June Fitzpatrick’s High Street gallery and see the colorful collages of 83-year-old Charles DuBack. i could feel myself becoming more relaxed by the minute and, since there wasn’t extensive wall text accompanying the exhibit, i was able to simply enjoy the work. The gallery is beautiful in its own right, with ornate ceiling moldings, and plinth block and rosette door casings. It’s located in an old brownstone-type building with a view of the Portland Museum of Art’s historic McLellan House, and the beautiful Copper Beech Tree growing next to it. Being off the beaten path, June Fitzpatrick’s High Street gallery has become a destination for serious art connoisseurs and collectors of works on paper. After a successful showing of DuBack’s oil paintings this past fall at her second gallery, which coincided with the multi-media “Coming to Maine” DuBack exhibit at the Portland Museum of Art, Fitzpatrick’s High Street gallery show will include examples of DuBack’s abstract collages and his stylized/figurative collages. Barring a few pieces, the collages from PMA’s show will be transferred to Fitzpatrick’s High Street gallery and exhibited during February and March, alongside several other collages. Since many of the pieces are already at the High Street gallery — driven down from Tenants Harbor, Maine by DuBack himself — I was able to preview the show. Most of the works date back to 1959 — apparently a prolific collage-making year for DuBack. The collages were typically inspired by the Maine landscape, or Maine life in general. DuBack hand-painted the majority of the paper used in the collages. I find it amazing that the arrangement of a few hand-painted strips, or blocks of paper, have the power to evoke emotions, or resemble a landscape. I expect that DuBack’s approach to collage mirrors his painting philosophy, which he explained in a lecture given at the Downtown Gallery in Washington, Maine: “that which one sees isn’t to be copied, but should be realized [by the artist] … I believe to paint is to know how to put nothing on a canvas and have it look like something, when viewed.” An example of this can be seen in “Middle Ground.” It’s deceivingly simple, made of only seven pieces of paper, but it clearly features the horizon line of a landscape. The imperfections and texture of the hand-painted paper add character to the piece. But I was equally impressed with DuBack’s stylized and figurative collages. DuBack’s figurative work resembles that of Alex Katz, which is not surprising since DuBack, Katz and sculptor and Maine native Bernard Langlais all met at Skowhegan then returned to New York and shared studios in the same building on 28th Street. All three would return to Maine, initially as parttimers. “Blueberry Pickers,” in particular, reminded me of Katz’s work — with human figures in a field, one wearing an eye catching red Read the entire article in our magazine pages...