Date: Fri 02-Oct-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

Cottingham-Washington-painting

Full Text:

(FOR REFERENCE ONLY; never ran in "Enjoy") Eyeing America: Cottingham Prints

At National Museum Of American Art

(with cut)

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- "Eyeing America: Robert Cottingham Prints" is an

exhibition celebrating the recent acquisition by the National Museum of

American Art of a set of the Newtown artist's prints. The collection spans

three decades of the artist's work.

The exhibition, on view through January 31, marks the museum's first occasion

to present the new collection to the public.

The creator of artwork recognized around the world, Mr Cottingham is best

known for his crisply depicted representations of the urban American

landscape. He came to prominence in the photorealist era of the late 1960s and

70s, having been inspired by Pop artists' use of commercial imagery. He was

also influenced by earlier realists such as Edward Hopper and Charles Demuth.

Mr Cottingham calls his work in which signs predominate "Facades." The signs,

marquees and storefronts have significance for him beyond their literal

message.

"My interest in these commercial curiosities," he says, "stems from my

Brooklyn upbringing, my fascination with letter forms as symbols, and my

interest in the use of language as a means of persuasion."

Like many 20th Century artists, Mr Cottingham uses photography as a starting

point for pictures. Despite the remarkable perfection in his rendering of

images and the relentless "realism" of the photographs that are the basis of

his compositions, Mr Cottingham is a creator, rather than a copier, of

American signs.

He considers his camera a "high-speed sketchbook," and shoots hundreds of

slides that serve as precursors to a formal composition. The artist sees

printmaking and painting as complementary acts. He finds that subtle

variations in each process suggest different approaches to the subject matter.

The formal exercise of establishing the composition reveals something

different to the artist each time he reconstructs familiar scenes.

Jacquelyn Days Serwer, the chief curator at the Museum of American Art, says

Mr Cottingham's "imagery and approach to composition give his work a

distinctive look.

"This exhibition," she continues, "is a terrific opportunity to see the same

artist creating a reworking his images in different media."

The lithograph "Orph" (1972), Mr Cottingham's first print, was created for

"Documenta 5," an art conference and exhibition that provided the artist his

first opportunity to produce an edition of prints with other contemporary

realist artists.

"Orph" was preceded by a watercolor and a drawing. For almost 30 years, Mr

Cottingham has continued this interplay between his painting and his

printmaking.

The "Barrera-Rosa's" series (1984-1986), depicting a once-typical city block,

not only displays Mr Cottingham's interest in different creative processes and

subtle differences in his subject that can be revealed through the processes,

but also his interest in America's past. His scene of a Mexican restaurant, a

German beer hall, a neighborhood barber shop and a liquor store preserves a

multicultural aspect of 20th Century American cities in a way he defines as

homage rather than nostalgia.

In addition to 70 prints produced from 1972 to 1991, "Eyeing America" includes

the museum's painting "Candy," the only oil on canvas in the exhibition. Mr

Cottingham's recent railroad pictures, "Heralds" and "Rolling Stock," round

out the show.

Like Mr Cottingham's signs, the railroad series elevates a decaying aspect of

the American landscape into a heroic symbol of America's past. Quotations and

commentary by the artist accompany many works.