The Fragrance of the Invisible Flower

Judith Trepp, Open Circle, Nr. 2013-08-02, 2013, oil stick and
acrylic on paper, 38 x 56 cm. (15 x 22 in.)

I've got some exciting Art & Argument news. Over the winter my friend Judith Trepp and I published a monograph featuring her work called "The Fragrance of the Invisible Flower: Sources of Power in the Minimalist Works of Judith Trepp." When Judith shows at the gallery Art Market Provincetown later this summer, AMP will host a reception for the monograph, which features an in-depth essay I wrote about her paintings and drawings along with more than two dozen images representing Judith's most important aesthetic directions of the last twenty or twenty-five years. You can read about the Sunday, August 20 reception here. For those unable to attend, you soon will be able to order books here via Paypal.

Untitled, Nr. 2011-07-01, 2011, egg tempera, oil and oil stick on linen, 24 x 45.2 in.

The title of the book refers to a Sufi metaphor, which suggests that the presence of love in the world is the physical manifestation of the divine, rather like the fragrance of an invisible flower. One thing I realized upon completing the essay was that by focusing on the tangible presence of her work I was able to address spiritual matters without engaging in speculation. The works are real; the works are here; but like that fragrance their beauty seems to suggest another, greater reality just outside of our conscious awareness, just beyond our reach. I contend that it is the minimalist nature of the works that allows more mysterious beauty to bleed through.

Judith's work will be part of a group show at AMP, and she has titled her presentation Undertow -- nice and minimalist, and suggesting of dangerous power. The piece above is one of several Judith will be showing.