Continuing its interest in representing artists with a preoccupation with rigid geometry and schematism the Galeria Carl Van Der Voort recently exhibited consecutively, first a series of eight “target” paintings by David Teachout and then a series of schematic canvases by David Simpson. The “targets” by Teachout consisted of large canvases, each essaying a target-like pattern of concentric rings of color. The colors employed in the concentric bands were so plotted optically in relation to each other and to the field that they gave the illusion of being suspended in front of the canvas at different depths. The Simpson paintings did nothing either optically or esthetically except to look like paintings that would admirably serve purely decorative functions in connection with contemporary office-building architecture. Simpson’s stripe paintings of over two years ago were subtly conceived: hard-edged, tightly controlled striations were stated against stains and amorphous expanses of thin color washes that seemed accidental or improvisatory; variety and subtlety characterized the work. Simpson’s current work, by contrast, shows deterioration and sclerosis. Now all he offers are unimaginatively schematic and stereotypically perfunctory manipulations of trite, decorative designs.

—Palmer D. French