Shirley Jaffe At Tibor

Tibor de Nagy Gallery offers up a forty-year retrospective of works by Paris based American abstract painter Shirley Jaffee, in an exhibition that open Mar 11 and is the third by the artist at Tibor.

Jaffe’s large scale geometric abstractions are inspired by what she sees day to day in the urban Paris landscape. This vision is translated ultimately into colorful shapes and scriptive lines, set against generous white grounds, creating playful and balanced compositions.

Though Jaffe’s artistic process usually entails many months of struggle, once the artist locks in the compositions, the seamless matte surfaces of the paintings show no signs of their evolution.

Jaffe arrived in Paris in 1949, and in the decades that followed, she established herself among a circle of American artists living in Paris including Sam Francis, Ellsworth Kelly and Joan Mitchell. In recent years, she has enjoyed an increasing international following.

According to exhibition catalogue author Carolyn Lanchner, Jaffe’s ‘manipulation of visual images ‘takes the basics – lines, forms, colors – and allows them every freedom her extraordinary imagination can devise, while vigilantly suppressing any errant tendencies towards tactile effects on a uniformly flat surface without material density.
Jaffe’s work is in the collection of MOMA and the Centre Georges Pompidou, in Paris, where one of her paintings was recently included in a major exhibition of women artists.

Tibor de Nagy will present an exhibition of the artist’s recent work at the ADAA Art Show, Mar 2-6.

Tibor de Nagy Gallery is located at 724 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. For more information visit tibordenagy.com.