Published by Radius Books. Text by Hesse McGraw. Interview by Alison Hearst.
Dallas-based painter Marcelyn McNeil (born 1965) creates large-scale oil abstractions with brightly colored forms—sometimes lozenge-like, sometimes angular—that drip, bleed and fade into one another. Her recent paintings and site-specific installation works celebrate the power of color and simple, clear gestures. Inspired by artists such as Helen Frankenthaler, McNeil rejects the masculinity of hard-edged abstract painting, instead introducing a sort of lyricism into her work with soft stains and blots of pigment. Often experimenting with perspective and illusion in her work, McNeil also resists the planar quality traditionally associated with abstract painting in favor of a more dynamic relationship to the canvas. With an accompanying interview and essay that provide a framework for engaging with the work, this volume explores the full breadth of this exciting artist’s quietly subversive oeuvre, and introduces new ways to consider and experience contemporary abstract painting.
