In a tour de force of portraits, wildlife and landscape studies, flower paintings and swamp scenes, David Bates shows us images of despair and reaffirmation that flow from nature’s unsentimental cycles of pain and joy, life and death.
Wow! I was quietly surprised by what I saw when I walked through the door of the Arthur Roger Gallery Saturday morning! Like the way a modem automobile bumper contact with a wall and then proceeds, slowly absorbing the shock of the impact as the hydraulic cylinders compress before bringing the car to a gentle halt. The gentleness is misleading for physics informs us that the energy is evenly distributed and passed on, not just reduced. A room full of large flowers and plants hanging on the wall and standing on the floor – paintings, collages, reliefs, and freestanding forms – terrestrial descendants of the cosmic effect of gamma rays on man in the moon marigolds brought into being with the physical exuberance of Bates’ handling of materials as creative energy reproduces the vital energy of plants and flowers.
Old-fashioned modern art is alive and well at Arthur RogerGallery, where renowned Dallas artist David Bates’ aggressive abstractions dominate the walls.
David Bates at Dunn and Brown Contemporary by Charles Dee Mitchell, ART IN AMERICA Near the center of the painted wood relief Cannas (all works 2000), there is a break in the thin strip of lumber that composes the stem of a flower. Corresponding to the snapped stalk of a tall, floppy bloom, the break…