ART IN REVIEW; Biala and David Brustlein
Published: February 2, 2001
Kouros Gallery
23 East 73rd Street
Manhattan
Through Feb. 10
The
work of artists who never escape the shadows of other artists often has
an air of poignant, determined striving. Such is the mood of this sweet
exhibition of paintings spanning the 1930's to the 80's by Janet
Tworkov Ford Brustlein, who died last September at age 96, and her
husband, Daniel Brustlein (1904-1996). While they lived most of their
married life in Paris, their professional activities were centered in
New York, where she exhibited regularly under the name Biala and he
painted covers for The New Yorker, which he signed Alain.
The
works on view tend to invite a case-by-case tallying of hits and
misses, of strokes that land solidly and clearly and those that seem
stylishly confused or just muddled. But there are few losing scores.
The
couple shared an affinity for sophisticated color, formal abbreviation
of the observed word and pungent brushwork -- the result, perhaps, of a
trans-Atlantic admiration for the New York School (especially Milton
Avery) and the School of Paris, especially Matisse, Bonnard and Dufy.
Brustlein,
who was at his best when painting expanses of foliage, turns the trunk
of a tree into a broken spiral of black and shingles it with blue-green
leaves. Biala, more serene and balanced, is inspired by Provincetown or
Venice to define watery planes of green with touches of pink, cream and
black -- houses, gondolas, beach and beach chairs. She paints a
bulletin-board-like homage to Piero della Francesca and finishes off an
image of a black cupboard with a vase of white flowers and a wavering
but electric green line.
The cost of battling shadows may be
indicated by the fact that the most assured works here are the
earliest: Brustlein's small blue-tinged portrait of a man from 1936 and
Biala's charming view of Paris street life from 1938. Still, this show
is strong enough to justify a more thorough, carefully selected survey
of both artists, alone or together. ROBERTA SMITH
Correction:
February 5, 2001, Monday A review in the Art in Review column of
Weekend on Friday about paintings by a deceased married couple, being
shown at the Kouros Gallery in Manhattan through Feb. 10, misstated the
woman's given name. She was Janice Tworkov Ford Brustlein, not Janet.
She exhibited under the name Biala.
Because of an editing
error, the headline misstated the man's given name. He was Daniel
Brustlein, as the review said, not David. He signed his paintings
Alain.
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