Art for the Ages

hat does age have to do with art? It's tempting to compare and contrast youthful exuberance to thoughtful maturity, energy to skill, experimentation to progression. Yes and no. Maybe. Maybe not.

"Generations," the current group exhibition at Marshall Arts, is ostensibly about age -- 17 artists whose ages fall within each decade parameter from pre-teen to nineties. And it invites a few comparisons: youngster Toby Mesler's precocious pictures to the formulaic folk-art of sixtysomething Frank Boyle; teenager Corrie Hogg's carefully (and deftly) rendered paintings to the fancifully casual canvases of Erneice Brode (in her nineties); the cut-out and carved assemblages of Bob Burdette (twenties) to those of Greely Myatt (forties).

But the issue of the artist's age gets a little muddy in some cases. Burton Callicott and Eudora Welty are both in their eighties, for example, but the work exhibited was done when they were in their twenties (another by Callicott was executed in 1960, in middle age). Likewise for Marjorie Liebman's Red Abstraction; it tells us that Liebman (now in her seventies) was a pretty progressive artist 40 years ago. Larry Edwards (sixties) and Greely Myatt (forties) both exhibit works created when they were actually a decade younger.

Okay, maybe I'm picking nits. So, we can't actually compare artwork strictly according to the artists' present ages -- say, current paintings by 80ish Callicott to 20ish Brian Bishop. But we can compare Bishop's current work to work by Callicott when he was the same age. (Bishop is certainly more in-tune to the '90s than Callicott was to the '30s. But then, Callicott didn't have the dubious advantage of ArtForum.) "Generations" turns out to be a survey of recent work, not-so-recent work, and truly historical work. And that's not a bad thing. It's an uneven thing and not exactly the thematic thing it's billed to be. But, as an exhibit, in places, it's actually a very good thing.

Anne Elias (forties) and James Starks (thirties) are both far under-exhibited; to see work by both in one show is a treat. Elias is one of those rare Memphis artists who believes in understatement and simplicity. Her Number 1 and Number 2 are oases in a crowded exhibit of busy art; simple lines, positive and negative, primitive and honest, mandalas for even the spiritually challenged.

Starks remains one of the best painters in town. Image: Black Man and Image: Woman's Torso are indicative of his almost naive power to create icons for our particular wayward era. Distressed and yet decorative, Starks' images are like Pompeiian frescos for the end of the 20th century. We await lava; in the meantime, we have tense and dangerous beauty,

Dolph Smith (sixties), of course, never fails. Craftsmanship beyond compare goes without saying. His Ripley Wing of the Tennarkippi National Produce Museum is masterful and witty, contraposing popular and high culture (the Ripley Tomato Festival and a museum of any sort) with a cornfed tongue firmly ensconced in city-boy cheek. Or is that chic?

Brian Bishop (twenties) exhibits a very impressive diptych painting which pushes the painter's eye successfully into the realm of the photographer or the videographer. Vacationland (I-40) is an image from the backside of the retina, peripheral and unfocused. It's a still from an unfilmed movie, the space between the negatives on a lost roll of film.

And, using actual film, photographer Ben Fink (thirties) achieves a similar yet more haunting effect. Dark and unpopulated, these large soft-focus images -- an Italian piazza, a lonely observation point overlooking a hazy city -- are evocative glances, brief yet immortal. These are disturbing pictures, and powerful ones, at once intimate and distant.

A few thematic knots aside, "Generations" is an impressive debut for Allison Smith as the new director for Marshall Arts' gallery space, and an impressive curatorial feat in and of itself. Her future efforts (hopefully, she will not be so modest as to completely exclude her own estimable artwork) should be greatly anticipated.

"Generations"
Marshall Arts
639 Marshall; 522-9483
Through November 26th