Albert Zahn: I’ll Fly Away
Michael Nakoneczny: Paintings From the Icebox
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In this case as in other Zahn works, greater realism–carved and painted feathers, for example–would have distracted the viewer from the implied movement. The legs of the two elongated animals in Pair of Running Dogs are almost parallel to the ground, extended fore and aft to heighten the sense of horizontal motion; their extended tails contribute to the illusion of speed. Yet abstraction in Zahn’s work doesn’t always suggest movement. The tall, thin bird of Stork offers pared-down vertical and horizontal forms, its clear geometry and simple three-colored design creating a remarkable calm. (Zahn’s wife, Louise, painted the sculptures based on his instructions.) Similarly, the square-shouldered figures wearing hats in the three works titled Sea Captain are little essays in rectilinear certitude.
The exhibit’s most extraordinary works are several that include multiple figures and suggest miniature cosmologies. A large white angel crowns the pillarlike Tree With Angels, Birds, and Barking Dogs; two groups of birds and one of dogs look up at it, suggesting it’s a religious icon around which the world revolves. In Family Tree With Birds, four tiers of figures include a central patriarch whose hands and head support a beam holding three more figures and nine birds–creatures that often symbolize the soul. The piece simultaneously evokes traditional family structures and, with its totemlike form, the soul’s ascent. Recalling the completeness of large altarpieces, both works seem designed to create worlds filled with belief.
