Kit White’s paintings communicate just as effectively when his viewers look at them as drawings. Creating spindly, airy structures with slightly bespattered lines, he manages to give the nod to the New York School as well as construct a vernacular that is very much his own. White spends his time evading the cognitive results of what he paints—he builds structures that seem to refer to themselves alone. Yet it is not correct to call them pure abstractions since they suggest the rudiments of buildings. The paintings cannot be translated into anything but what they are, but the overall implications of White’s paintings are greater than the sum of their parts. Consistently, he puts together an image that generates speculation on his audience’s part. His art questions definitions about esthetic meaning, stylistic skill, and ethical perception. In Boogie Woogie (2014), White’s nod to Mondrian, his rough black lines establish a rickety frame that criss-crosses in an attempt to build something that will hold. Its vulnerability turns out to be emotionally affecting. Knowing the evocative titles of his art helps us make sense of them. White brilliantly mines the field where abstraction and figuration meet. JONATHAN GOODMAN
Exhibition extended to May 17. 529 W 20th Street, between 10th and 11th avenues,
New York City 212-255-020
Kit White, Theme, 2013. Oil on panel, 19 x 22 inches. Courtesy of Andre Zarre Gallery