JOAN MATHEWS05.11 - 11.11.1976

JOAN MATHEWS, from the U.S.A., is presenting for the first time in Sweden her studies of parallel lines.
From November 5 to 11, 1976, she exhibits at Galerie S:t Petri in Lund.

During 1974, Mathews painted large monochrome works consisting of several panels hung together in a rectangular formation. Each panel contained tightly compressed parallel lines drawn in wet paint, either with a ruler or freehand. Once a line was made, it was never altered.

For economic and spatial reasons, Joan Mathews stopped painting in the autumn of 1974. After much experimentation with various materials, she found that thick felt-tip pens and thin, inexpensive paper were well suited for her continued investigations. A razor blade also came into use, allowing the lines to run across a more varied surface. From time to time, accidents occurred with the blade — holes appeared in the paper. Sometimes these holes became the sole object of her research, sometimes they were combined with lines and paper. The main colours Joan Mathews uses in these structural studies are black, white, and grey.

She often emphasizes that our lives are governed by chance, by coincidence, and that it makes no real difference what we do or how we attempt to control or organize our lives or our work — chance will always intervene. Joan Mathews seeks to collaborate with these coincidences rather than to eliminate them. This way of understanding her creative process has not been reached quickly. For about twenty years, she has been active in the American art world. From Abstract Expressionism in the 1950s, through the Fluxus and Happening movements of the 1960s, she has now arrived at a visual language that offers the viewer a remarkably wide perspective on themselves within a larger context. A meditative depth can be sensed in her work, making the images appear perpetually unfinished. The viewer is invited to continue the process through their own thoughts — and how far one can go depends largely on one’s personal life experience.

The exhibition is open weekdays from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays from 12 noon to 5 p.m.