‘Summer Whites, Summer Brights’ At Argazzi

Richard Segalman has resisted the call of abstract expressionism throughout his long career. Now 85, the artist, who lives and works in Woodstock, N.Y., has continued to paint figures. Often compared to Fairfield Porter, he teases the eye with gestural brushstrokes that first describe the figure or figures in a composition then seem to be no more than thick paint on the surface of canvas. But that paint, with changes in color, especially delicate pastels, stands for light itself and gives Segalman canvases a luminosity and transparency. Now his work is the main focus of an end-of-season show, “Summer Whites/Summer Brights,” at Argazzi Gallery in Lakeville, Conn. 

Then, too, there is the artist’s way with the sea and shore, recurring passions that occur over and over in Segalman’s many paintings of figures — always women — by the shore, usually seen from behind or from the side, most often in groups. Or his depiction of shore breezes: The women’s clothes billow and seem to move. And the clothes themselves: Segalman’s mother was a milliner, and his representation of fabric, often gauzy and nearly transparent — a woman’s body is often hinted at through the cloth — is usually rendered in delicate pastels splashed with white, sometimes in a red so vivid it shocks you.

Segalman is interested in figures more than faces. Rarely do his figures have defined faces, sometimes they have none at all. He leaves it to viewers to fill in features, although he insists that his pictures have no attached narrative, no purpose other than to get “at my experience of light.” While there may seem to be a contradiction between Segalman’s figurative insistence and the abstract notion of experiencing light, there is none in the actual pictures. In the best of them, light and gestural painting let us join his women on the shore, feel the bluster of sea wind and sand between our toes and almost hear the horizontal hints of waves rolling in.

“Summer Whites/Summer Brights” continues at Argazzi Art through Sept. 20. The gallery, at 22 Millerton Road, Route 44, Lakeville, Conn., is open Friday – Sunday. Call 860-435-8222 or go to www.argazziart.com.