Two works by Novros -Boathouse (2016) and Untitled (Graham Studio Mural II) (2006)- are included in the show. They are large, polychromatic paintings, described by the artist as portable murals. These works relate to imagery that Novros first explored in a fresco he made for the second floor of 101 Spring Street in 1970 and are examples of his ongoing commitment to what he calls “painting-in-place.”
Untitled (Graham Studio Mural II) was one of five works Novros made for the sculptor Robert Graham’s home and studio in Venice, California, and is one of two that are extant. Boathouse, a multipartite painting in oil and murano, was made after a related mural cycle conceived for a boathouse in Middleburgh, New York was destroyed. These works demonstrate Novros’s ongoing interest in structural wholeness, the interplay of color, and place.
This exhibition presents new opportunities for considering Novros’s portable murals within the context of his permanent fresco at 101 Spring Street, and for seeing anew the importance of place and permanence to his work more broadly. Jörg Daur, Deputy Director of the Museum Wiesbaden, describes Novros’s paintings as “distinguished by an interplay with each place that fundamentally allows this place as such to emerge.”
September 30, 2022
