The long career of Cameron Booth seems to have taken a full cycle. At least the most recent of his works, Spring Thaw—1961 and Black Cow in Winter return to the image, echoing in many ways the years prior to World War II. There is, of course, a much greater simplification of form and a far stronger feeling for the essential unity of the canvas than there was in the Social Realism of earlier days. It is, in all honesty, a new image, yet markedly different from that which is so tenuously held by younger artists today. Booth’s familiarity with realism is retained. The resulting contrast between the few most recent pieces and the Abstract Expressionism of the late ’50s which characterizes the majority of the works shown, is so great as to appear incongruous. There would seem to have been no major transitional works between the two styles. Color is paramount to the mood established in the abstract works, which varies from one of tension in Crossing, 1958 or Rhapsody to one of relaxation in the horizontal rhythms of Winter (February 12) 1960. Although Booth has been more a follower of trends than a leader, his canvases evidence the sincerity and capability of a master painter.
—Constance Perkins
