Leaving Architecture For Art

Adam Van Doren, grandson of Mark, studied architecture with Robert A. M. Stern, surely the most famous architecture educator in the country. But practicing architecture was not for Van Doren, who decided to make a career in art. Now he is exhibiting new work at his friend Darren Winston’s book shop in Sharon. While Van Doren’s Beaux-Arts training is evident in all the work, the first four pictures in the show are gentle, moody, nostalgic renderings of architectural landmarks: The New York Public Library emerges less grand, more poetic; facades on Riva degli Schiavoni — Venice’s famous promenade — are romantically faded. Van Doren paints en plain air, and often the pictures fade away from top to bottom as if the light grew fainter until the artist could no longer see. It is a charming technique. Surprisingly, more of the paintings at Winston are influenced by German Expressionism of the early 20th century, with their abstraction and emphatic, blazing colors. Van Doren’s palette seems freed of constraint, his line more spontaneous. Yet you always know what the artist is rendering. Some pictures depict less occupied, wilder areas of Martha’s Vineyard. “Harvest Moon” hangs splendidly above dark fields of green, red and a blackish blue. But “Chenonceaux” presents the Loire chateau in oil and returns, more vividly, surely, to Van Doren’s architectural style. This is a lovely show. Adam Van Doren is at Darren Winston Bookseller, 81 Main St., Sharon, through Nov. 20. For information, call 860-364-1890.