Mind over matter

Imber captures his changing perceptions

by Leon Nigrosh

JON IMBER: RECENT At the University Gallery, Clark University, 950 Main Street, through March 1.

Jon Imber has a very active intellect. He searches for meanings in everyday occurrences, mundane objects, and ordinary places. His interest in art history keeps him constantly experimenting with different ways to express himself through his paintings. He is also fascinated with the inner world of the mind, fear, and -- more recently -- fatherhood.

Imber gained his reputation in the early '80s by producing gigantic portraits of friends and family members, along with a continuing series of brash self-portraits. These works were often more than six feet to eight feet on a side and presented commanding images. His approach was influenced by his teacher, Philip Guston, and others like Max Beckmann. He sought to make his skin tones glow from within by piling on the paint. The tonality of the blank backgrounds played an important role in creating the particular mood he attempted to reveal.

In the late '80s, Imber turned to landscape painting. Reasoning that he had brought his figures about as far as he could go, according to his ideal, he thought he should easily be able do the same with landscapes. Laboring over a single cornstalk per day, painting a tractor in and out and over until it fit the scene, Imber finally gained control of Lexington farmlands and his rocks in Maine -- often producing complex paintings that were 14 feet long.

Then, about four years ago, his son Gabriel was born and, almost overnight, there was a change in Imber's style and scale. His paintings became more intimate and also monochromatic. It is a selection of these works that is currently on display at the University Gallery.

Several small oil-on-board plein-air paintings have become landscapes in name only. The Thoroughfare and Silverhill IV are covered with bright slashes of color that could be thought of as tesserae in an abstract mosaic. We are left to conjure the trees and bushes ourselves. Because Imber painted Silverhill VII in the dead of winter, we see little color other than the black of the leaf-stripped trees and the white of the snow. This painting stirred Imber's recollection of DeKooning's black-and-white paintings of the '40s and became the stylistic inspiration for the second series of paintings on display in which the images take precedence over the palette.

White-lined horses, dogs, and lions radiate Picasso-like throughout this dark canvas, surrounding the head of a sleeping child (Gabriel) as if in a dream. Imber says that he sees these images as the fantasies and apprehensions that young children have as they begin to experience the real world and compare it to the fairy tales and stories they have been told. Imber also admits that these are, in fact, his thoughts merely projected onto his son.

Imber's interest in art history again comes to the fore in Gabriel Meets Piero Di Cosimo. Here, we see his young son coming face to face with Imber's interpretation of that Northern Renaissance painter's imaginary, primitive life-forms. Animals and people cover the panel engaged in scary, but joyful pursuits that fit right in with Gabriel's fascination with swords and sorcery.

In the modest canvas Armillary and the small panel Holding Gabriel, Imber has rendered himself and his son in an embrace so full of love that they are impervious to the background activity roiling around them. Imber recalled that 20 years ago he also painted double portraits of father and son. At that time he was the son, for this go-round he is now the father.

It is both Imber's continual intellectual stimulation and the close proximity to his work that often precipitates change in his paintings. Living and working in the same space, Imber confronts his paintings on a daily basis and often reworks what had at one point seemed to be a complete canvas. A good case in point is his largest work in this exhibit, The Nap. Stand in front of this 51"x102" canvas with the show invitation in hand (or the illustration accompanying this review) and see if you can spot the changes Imber made to the composition since the card was printed. Do this, and you will have a small indication of just how Imber's active imagination operates.

The University Gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Call 793-7113.