Connie Connally

On the Wild Mustard Field Blackland Prairie Abstract Expressionism Texas Art

2018

"CONNIE CONNALLY WORKS MOST CLEARLY WITH WHAT WE RECOGNIZE AS GESTURAL ABSTRACTION, ASSOCIATED WITH ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM. CONNALLY HAS FOCUSED, HOWEVER, ON A NOTABLE SUBSET OF SUCH GESTURAL PAINTING, ONE RECOGNIZED IN THE HEYDAY OF ACTION PAINTING AND EVEN CITED THEN TO LI ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM WITH VITAL PRECEDENTS (E.G. THE LATE IMPRESSIONISM OF MONET, THE EARLY ABSTRACTIONS OF KANDINSKY). LIKE SUCH PRECEDENTS, CONNALLY DISTINGUISHES HERSELF AS, IN ESSENCE, A LANDSCAPE PAINTER, ALBEIT ONE WHO PAINTS THE LANDSCAPE SHE FEELS AS MUCH AS SHE PAINTS THE ONE SHE SEES. INDEED, CONNALLY’S STRESS ON SENSUOUS FORM AND COLOR EXPERIENCE THROUGH REFERENCE TO NATURAL PHENOMENA (IN PARTICULAR VEGETATION AND WATER, NORMALLY IN MOTION) PLACES ITSELF SQUARELY IN A TRADITION PARTICULAR TO THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. JOHN MARIN’S EXPANSIVE RHAPSODIES ON THE LOCAL LANDSCAPE EXEMPLIFY THIS TRADITION, AS DOES JOAN MITCHELL’S GRADUAL – BUT ULTIMATELY THOROUGH – ADOPTION OF LANDSCAPE QUALITIES AND REFERENCES. THIS SORT OF “PLEIN AIR ABSTRACTION” DEFINES CONNALLY’S WORK, BUT HER PARTICULAR TOUCH AND PALETTE, AND HER CLOSE AND VIBRANT SENSE OF ATMOSPHERE, DISTINGUISHES IT."