Bill Scott

Hollis Taggart Galleries is pleased to present an exhibition of the recent paintings of Bill Scott. The twenty paintings on view are imbued with a joie de vivre that has long been a hallmark of Scott’s lushly colored, abstracted compositions. In addition to these works, this exhibition showcases paintings that introduce an important new compositional element—as the artist re-interprets iconic historical works of art in his own uniquely inventive idiom.

Taking inspiration from Renoir’s Large Bathers of 1884–87, Scott’s Two or Three Nudes in a Landscape (2010) suggests pastoral figures through abstracted curved forms and pink tones.  And The Cherry Tree (2011) explores Morisot’s cherry harvest paintings of the 1890s, emphasizing through insistent vertical shapes the orthogonals of the Impressionist painting.  John Zarobell, Assistant Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and author of the catalogue’s essay, likens these compositions to “Coltrane playing a Cole Porter tune, forcing the underlying formal relationships of the source into a decisively experimental rendition.”

Scott’s network of complex geometries prevail in all the paintings in our exhibition.  In Window, the forms are rectangular, suggesting both the window’s panes and the view of nature beyond.  Scott’s mastery of visual play and pun is seen in the blocks’ subtle layering, which denies literal reading.  Instead, the areas of luminous color float above each other.  Little Pink Cherry Tree (2009–10) takes a different approach to geometry; the forms are organic traceries, overlapping in an intricate arrangement in a highly saturated palette.

A lifelong Philadelphia resident, Scott studied informally with Joan Mitchell and formally at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Arts, where he is now a respected teacher. Bill’s Scott’s fourth exhibition at Hollis Taggart Galleries, continues to affirm his dedication to pushing the boundaries of expanding the boundaries of form and color.