Looking at Joyce Kozloff’s paintings. Searching for a way into painting. Night Stars. A crisscross of strips, changing their patterning, as they lay over and under each other to jumble the surface in a myriad of directions. The areas in between darker, receding behind, filled with a variety of texture designs. The whole a chaos of configurations which one groups and regroups. Eyes following the lines to articulate a shape only to find themselves jumping to another and another through an endless flux of possibilities. Again in Carousel, attempting to trace one line as it zigzags across the surface. Yet unable to follow through as the eyes shift at the intersections with other lines to compile a snowflake shape. The puzzle of how the eye organizes pattern and assimilates color and shape into varying orders. But what about the decorative markings which form a patchwork backdrop for the lines? And the textile design of the lines weaving in and out of each other? Is the painting then literally a fabric for one’s perception? In other works the stitching together of assorted elements stabilizes more readily into a quilted whole. And one wonders if painting becomes the piecing together of patterns to cover the surface in a design for the eye’s meandering.

—Susan Heinemann