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Elaine Lustig Cohen
Geometry of Seeing
November 29, 2007- January 12, 2008

JULIE SAUL GALLERY and Pavel Zoubok Gallery are pleased to announce The Geometry of Seeing: The Art of Elaine Lustig Cohen, a forty year survey of paintings, drawings, collages and constructions by this art world veteran. Please join us for the opening reception on Thursday, November 29th, or during the run of the exhibition, which continues through January 12, 2008.

ELAINE LUSTIG COHEN has worn many hats in the art world - as a pioneering graphic designer and dealer of rare Modernist books and works of art - but she has always been, first and foremost, an artist. The Geometry of Seeing celebrates her singular contribution as an artist whose innovative pictorial strategies have both extended and expanded upon the language of Modernism.

The exhibition, which includes some fifty works, begins with Lustig Cohen's hard edge, non-objective paintings of the mid-1960s which move from brightly colored palettes to larger, more classically composed paintings during the 1970s. A series of torn collages made from Spanish political posters during the late 1970s have a liberating effect on the style and structure of her work. During the early 1980s she moves her geometric thinking to sculptural form. Using the primary colors of her earlier work, she creates a series of boxes - "Mondrian in miniature with an added twist of Rubik's Cube" - the series culminating in a magnificent sewing box based on traditional form. By the 1990s Lustig Cohen is scaling down, making collages that increasingly incorporate photography, both vintage and her own. Fragments from her travels, printmaking, and even books she has owned and dealt in find their way into these dynamic compositions. They are formally and thematically tied to her earlier paintings and graphic work. Most recently, Lustig Cohen has explored digital media, creating innovative "alphabets" and whimsically conceived "chess sets".

Alexandra Anderson-Spivy writes, "Lustig Cohen's creative versatility is that of a consummate professional whose esthetic is grounded in an understanding of what Brancusi called 'truth to materials.' This idea, an anti-illusionistic core principle of both twentieth century advanced art and architecture (as opposed to the postmodern), holds that materials should be used where they are most appropriate and that their nature not be disguised or hidden. Tirelessly inventive, Lustig Cohen continues to reanimate a classic vocabulary of Constructivist, Surrealist and Cubist forms, making highly personal work that embodies the revitalizing power of her lucid, expert imagination."

The Geometry of Seeing: The Art of Elaine Lustig Cohen is accompanied by a full-color catalogue with essay by Trevor Winkfield. For additional information and images please contact Lisa Fontana at lisa@saulgallery.com, 212-627-2410.

The first installment of this exhibition will be on view at Pavel Zoubok Gallery, 533 West 23nd Street, (between 10th & 11th Avenues) November 15-December 15, opening on Thursday, November 15th, 6-8 PM

Elaine Lustig Cohen
GEOMETRY OF SEEING
NOVEMBER 29, 2007- JANUARY 12, 2008

Entrance:
Untitled
1981
painted wood relief
25 x 30 x 3"

Alphadefense
2006
giclee print
24 x 24"
edition of 5

Art Chess II
2002
photo and acrylic
26 x 26"

Office:
Pangaea II
2006
collage and acrylic
19 ½" diameter

Main Gallery
East wall:
Untitled
black and white pastel on paper
22 ½ x 22 ½"

Untitled
1982
wax pastel and pencil on paper
16 1/4 x 16 1/4"

Untitled
1970
acrylic on canvas
22 x 22"

Untitled
1982
gouache on paper
22 5/8 x 22”

North wall
Partagas
1981
collage and gouache on paper
16 5/8 x 20 5/8"

La Escepcion
1982
collage and gouache on gray paper
23 ½ x 19 ½"

Black Pilaster (study for XIII)
1980
gouache on paper
22 3/4 x 20 1/4"

Black Pilaster XIII
1980
acrylic on canvas
72 x 60"

Granada
1980
collage on paper
29 3/4 x 22"

Afiliate
1980
collage on paper
29 1/4 x 22"

West wall

Untitled
1984
watercolor and gouache on paper
4 x 15 1/4"

Untitled
1984
watercolor and gouache on paper
22 5/8 x 22"

Thunderclap (study for)
1984
acrylic on canvas
36 x 36"

Untitled
1973
gouache and wax crayon on paper
18 2 x 18 2"

Untitled
1973
gouache and wax crayon on paper
18 1/2 x 18 1/2"

South wall
Untitled
1980
watercolor on paper
12 2 x 13 3/4"

Gallaleo Moon
2007
watercolor and photo collage on paper
17 1/4 x 15”

Menschlichen Proportion
1994
photo with collage and acrylic
15 11/16 x 11 2"
sold

Ceremony
1996
photograph with collage on acrylic
12 x 14"
sold

Big Husky Muscles Only
1996
photograph with collage on paper
10 3/4 x 15 3/4"

Archimedes
1995
photograph with collage and acrylic
15 11/16 x 11 3/4”

Star Chart
1995
photograph with collage and acrylic
11 3/4 x 9 1/4"

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Untitled, 1981

Alphadefense, 2006

Art Chess II, 2002

Pangaea II, 2006

Untitled

Untitled, 1982

Untitled, 1970

Untitled, 1982

Partagas

La Esception, 1982