"Slow Blur" Charcoal Cross-Hatch Drawing on Canvas 1976 Jack Scott

JACK SCOTT (b.1953)

Education:
MFA San Francisco Art Institute (1978)
BA
San Francisco State University (1976)
College of Marin (1971-1974)

Exhibitions Include:
Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art (solo)
Hansen Fuller Golden Gallery, San Francisco (solo)
Kirk deGooyer Gallery, Los Angeles, (solo)
"California Drawings", Modernism, San Francisco

Awards and Distinctions Include:
National Endowment for the Arts, Artist Fellowship Grant
Marin Arts Council Individual Artists Grant
Finalist, S.E.C.A. Award, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Publications Include:
Albright, Thomas. Art in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945-1980
University of California Press, 1985

Articles and Reviews Include:
Fischer, Hal, ARTFORUM
Wilson, William, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
Rosenthal, Adrienne, ART WEEK
Albright, Thomas, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Gardener, Colin, ARTWEEK
Solnit, Rebecca. Arts, PACIFIC SUN
Pincus, Robert, LOS ANGELES TIMES
Frankenstein, Alfred, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

Public Collections Include:
Prudential, Inc., New Jersey
Security Pacific Bank, Los Angeles
Illinois Bell, Chicago
Atlantic Richfield Corporation, Los Angeles
Park Fifty-Five Hotel, San Francisco

About the work:
Working on large unstretched canvases and Strathmore paper, Jack Scott draws charcoal arcs in a freehand style. Through placement and density the arcs create patterns of light and dark, vibrating with a luminescence unanticipated by the rawness of the materials. In previous works the arcs coalesced into amorphous forms—romantic sensations suggesting clouds, smoke or fog. With his recent works Scott introduces a concrete graphic form, large bisecting arcs that are giant magnifications of the minutely rendered arcs. Environmental romanticism yields to a bolder sensibility, as these shapes bear relationship to configurations favored by Minimalists and hard-edge abstractionists. However, Scott’s web of soft, undulating arcs subverts the large-scale coolness of the primary form. In this sense the artist’s works remind one of Rothko, whose monumental forms were also conceived through a diffused or soft-edge development.

The method of building up freehand forms is remarkable considering the massive scale favored by the artist. From this standpoint his drawing seems imbued with a medieval intensity, displaying a feeling for concentration and handcraft that is often absent from contemporary art.

—Hal Fischer