Bill Manning's relationally intense paintings

By KEN GREENLEAF | June 15, 2011

Manning has spent many summers on Monhegan Island, coming back from his expeditions with colors that are internalized, not mimicked. His paintings are not about the colors and shapes of landscape. They are, as is true of virtually all art, about the experience of the artist made manifest in the work. This self-awareness is at the core of the modernist idea, as originally articulated by Cézanne, Eliot, Proust, and many others through a direct line that leads to many of the greatest works of our own era. Manning has made faith in these ideas the foundation of his life's work, and it has served him well.

Ken Greenleaf can be reached atken.greenleaf@gmail.com.

"WILLIAM MANNING: NEW PAINTINGS AND DRAWINGS" | through June 18 at Icon Contemporary Art, 19 Mason St | Brunswick | 207.725.8157

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Topics: Museum And Gallery , Museums, Noriko Sakanishi, Portland School, More

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