THE CATACLYSM PAINTINGS: by PATRICK WEBB

Reception: Th 2/10 5:30-7:30pm;
Visible continuously from Flushing
Access weekday afternoons
By appointment only.
718-392-3751; klopwebb@aol.com

These paintings, begun after Patrick Webb completed his Covid cycle (http://patrick-webb.com/covid/), explore themes familiar to his works. Firefighters, first responders, enforcers and Punchinellos all make appearances in these narratives of catastrophe. Webb’s alter ego, Punchinello, who has inhabited his work since 1990, saves, jousts and gets rescued. The format of the paintings is inspired by 15th century predellas. The structure of the paintings is inspired by both the music and the score of the Well-Tempered Clavier by Bach. The horizontal lines of the firefighters’ tape act like the staves of the music, creating directional movement across the compositions. Then the hoses, figures, and fires move forward, back, up and down, creating rhythms and arabesques that invert and retrograde in some of the ways of the fugues and cannons in the music. While time is manipulated by Bach, Webb uses space, form and surface to explore the dynamics of the actions. The paintings are 5 feet wide and between 14 and 22 inches tall. Also, Webb plans to install, in progress, the first large version (38 X166 inches) of the compositions. This mural is painted on heavy rough hemp which gives the feeling of a textured wall and takes the intimate explorations of the smaller paintings into grander, more apocalyptic implications.