Sixty Howard Warshaw drawings and paintings, all from the last two years, are presently on display at Felix Landau. They deal with the human figure or animals, very much in the tradition of “neo-Renaissance” draftsmanship with which we associate Rico Lebrun. Many are simply studies of bodies in arrested position, including a number of ink and wash drawings of goats and horses, and a series of human heads, mostly in oil.
In the “finished” paintings Warshaw is generally involved with bodies in motion, taking his departure from the Cubist principle of simultaneity. Moving Beast of 1967 (acrylic on board) is in characteristic muted tones: browns, blacks, blue and white. It depicts an animal, presumably a horse, moving forward. One detects a wish to record the precise nature of the subject’s action by means of formal repetition and other Cubist devices. The result is scarcely more interesting than it sounds. Bird Forms (1965) is a busier composition in dusty earth colors, with a series of wing shapes, etc., creating a flat, broken-up design.
The direct studies of humans and animals in natural postures are by far the superior works. The goat sketches have a considerable freshness and immediacy. Man Reading (1967), in ink and crayon, demonstrates Warshaw’s technique at its best. Its subject is the bulky seated form of an old man, head bowed over a crumpled letter which he holds with clumsy hands. The artist conveys in his subject with economical means a moving expression of near-sighted concentration and anxious concern for what he reads.
—Jane Livingston
