The paintings of Elizabeth Ives rely on the power of mental association, prompted by abstract visual cues. At first glance, the objects which she represents are unknown entities, yet oddly familiar. Their large, irregular, weighty, vertical forms suggest bones, petrified trees and megalithic architecture while precisely resembling none of them. Their surfaces, built up in extremely low relief with oil paint and modeling paste, seem delicate, intricate, and brittle - in marked contrast to their massive shapes. The tensions between contrasting mental associations - nature and culture, the organic and the inorganic - and between visual qualities suggesting both strength and vulnerability, are the key to the power and richness of Ives's abstractions.
Nick Capasso
Curator,
DeCordova Museum
