Split III is as comprehensive yet succinct an example of Harold Garde’s art as one could come by. It encompasses the influences of his formative mentors—Ilya Bolotowsky’s constructivist geometric abstraction (it is composed of three equally proportioned vertical rectangles), Leon Kelly’s surrealist sensibilities (the organic yet angular forms can suggest both humanoid and protozoan forms), and George McNeil (the lively color palette and the sense that the orange, quasi-figural forms are dancing). The way Garde hybridized and synthesized these influences throughout his career is uniquely and recognizably his own, resulting in an image that is impossible to pigeonhole into any single style. Though statically composed within the three-rectangle format, the sense of movement is unmistakable, leading to a typical agitation of the surface that Garde characteristically achieved through modulation of paint shades, pattern and texture. It buzzes with energy and color, practically leaping off of the surface at the viewer.

Jorge S. Arango, The Portland Press Herald/Sunday Maine Telegram