Personal Critical Archive of the Visual and Related Arts
Gladys Nilsson
American; 20th-century
Normal, IL: University Galleries of Illinois State University
58%
Wolf. 1971. Acrylic on canvas
Gladys Nilsson. Wolf. 1971. Acrylic on canvas (56%)
At first glance the density of information and all the nestlings of curves into curves (into curves) is interesting, but sustained looking doesn't complexify these initial effects, nor does it yield much beyond them. Namely, there's an equivalence between every plane — a literal "superficiality" at work — that makes the piece seem all static and stuck to its own surface, despite how much movement there is. There's nothing to contradict or countervail the flatness and the thinness of the artist's acrylics; the modeling by way of dots and squiggles attempts to do so, but it runs aground on how subservient it ultimately needs to be to Nilsson's line. To put all this another way: the whole painting seems to be a layering of figures on top of figures, with no ground to speak of. Pictorially, it's decorative. Its slight saving grace in this regard is its painted wood frame, which makes it into something other than just a picture. This goes a way towards apologizing for the pictorial indulgence, but not all the way. The phallic wolf symbolism/imagery is endearing. (2024)