Categories and definitions are effectively and creatively being challenged. The exhibition begins with Ellsworth Kelly's seminal paired wall and floor panels, Blue Red of 1966, and Anne Truitt's three-dimensional abstract painting of colored bands, Knight's Heritage of 1963. He is here represented by a painted and chromium-plated steel work, Debonaire Apache from 1991. Many of the artists in the show have defined themselves as both painters and sculptors, either simultaneously or sequentially. This is apparent in pieces by artists like Italo Scanga, whose Patron Saint of Prosperity from 1994 combines wood, paint, metal and glass.
Video is thus the technical means for moving a planar representation into the third dimension.
The creation of art is complex and personal, and any attempt at definition brings with it the danger of inappropriate limitation. Nonetheless, bringing to gether works where there is an acknowledged common ground enables them to inform one another and thereby their audi ence. In order to give the artists the opportunity to speak for themselves, five of the artists in the exhibition came to gether to discuss how they perceive the inter-actions of painting, sculp ture and color. Their ideas form the major text for the show's catalogue. Designed by Malcolm Grear Designers of Providence, the catalogue includes entries and full-color illustrations for all works in the exhibition.