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J I L L N EWH O U S E copyright 2021 j ill newhouse llc des ign by lawrence sunden, inc.

Dot Dot Dot . . . Pointillism and Beyond 1885–2018

Jill Newhouse Gallery 4 East 81 st Street New York, NY 10028 Tel ( 212 ) 249-9216 email: info@jillnewhouse.com www.jillnewhouse.com Essay and curatorial assistance by Jovana Stokic November 2 –December 10, 2021

Acknowledgements

This exhibition was developed with the help of generous colleagues and collectors whose collaborative spirit is greatly appreciated, particularly John Elderfield; Thomas French Fine Art; Gagosian; Sean Kelly, Sean Kelly Gallery; Mireille Mosler, Mireille Mosler, Ltd.; Christian Neffe, Neffe deGandt Fine Art; David Nolan, David Nolan Gallery; Susan Sheehan, Susan Sheehan Gallery; Hollis Taggart, Hollis Taggart Gallery; Alexandra Slattery and Evelyn Lasry, Two Palms; Carroll Janis Gallery; Thomas Salis, Galerie Thomas Salis; Anonymous private collectors; Christa Savino, gallery director; Lawrence Sunden, graphic design; Jovana Stokic, curatorial guidance.

Jill Newhouse

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From a couple of steps away, the eye no longer perceives the brushwork: the pink, the orange and the blue are composed on the retina, coalesced in a vibrant chorus, and the sensation of the sun imposes itself. . . . the optical mix creates luminosities that are much more intense than the blending of the pigments .

Félix Fénéon on Dubois-Pillet’s pointillist paintings, July 1886

The oldest painting in our exhibition, Landscape at La Grande Jatte (cat. no. 1 ), was made in 1884 – 86 by Albert Dubois-Pillet ( 1846 – 1890 ) a disciple of Georges Seurat. Dubois-Pillet painted the same place as Seurat had in his iconic grand canvas La Grande Jatte , enthusiastically following Seurat’s revolutionary methods. Seurat had conducted his explorations of optics with a thoroughness not seen since the Renaissance, but what is exciting for us today is not only that these paintings are relentlessly scientific, but that they are at the same time ingratiatingly popular. A Manifesto painting, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884, is a life-sized depiction of a Sunday idyll. Seurat had in fact relied on another original mind, French chemist Michel-Eugène Chevreul ( 1786 – 1889 ), whose exploration into the optical mixing of colors led to his discovery of several types of contrasts of color and tone, and a formulation of the law of simultaneous contrast: that colors mutually influence one another when juxtaposed, each imposing its own complementary color on the other. (His invention led to the modern use of commercial paints: in order to represent colors by definite standards, he brought together all of the colors of the visible spectrum, relating them to

each other in a circular system, and producing scales of thousands of tints.) It is said that it was Seurat’s orchestration of tones and colors that allowed viewers to be moved, a lesson that Dubois-Pillet took close to his heart as he searched for balance in coloration and luminosity. • • • Many art historians have recognized the Pointillist technique as a way to create distance from thematic matters. But, as our images here show, it is really not only about this perceived distancing, but about the greatest degrees of luminosity and brilliance that tiny dots of varying pure color, which become blended in the viewer’s eye, can achieve. The watercolor Landscape with Sea and Cliffs , c. 1900 (cat. no. 5 ) by Hippolyte Petitjean ( 1854 – 1929 ) is the best example of the longevity of this striving, nine years after Seurat’s death. Petitjean never abandoned Pointillism as a method of artistic expression, and continued to exhibit his work regularly at the Salon des Indépendants until the very end of his career. • • • Many later artists, such as Camille Pissarro ( 1830 – 1903 ), Vincent Van Gogh ( 1853 – 1890 ) and Paul Signac ( 1863 – 1935 ), used Pointillist techniques briefly, often allowing the dots of color to be broader and brighter in color. This combination of optical studies and luminosity is even more beautifully embodied in Henri Matisse’s and Pierre Bonnard’s oeuvres. Bonnard himself went beyond both Impressionist and Pointillist analytical vocabularies, bringing in more unique constellations of colors in order to channel mood and emotion. We interpret here his spectacular Vue Panoramic de Cannet , c. 1930 (cat. no. 6 ) as the result of these explorations, showing the exuberant joy in finding compositional structures within his unique color palette.

In curating Dot Dot Dot . . . , we took the impetus from the Pointillists to focus on the concept of both revolution and idyll. As Seurat famously depicted ordinary people’s leisure, he implicitly invoked democratization and a promise of shared joy in viewing, outside the canon of academic painting. This was our starting point, to offer works that remind us of modern and contemporary art’s desire to be probing, revolutionary and joyful, all at once. • • • In this selection that emphasizes open-endedness rather than tracing any linear trajectories, we gathered diverse works of art that celebrate the optical, and speak of the Pointillist legacy in multifaceted ways that all share a conviction in the joy of image making. In this spirit, we invite you to connect the dots with us—in a celebration of the Pointillist vision of the world that once promised a reality of heightened luminosity and vibrancy, and to observe the work of abstract painters who use dots and circular shapes to find the compositional and structural scheme necessary to liberate themselves from representational constraints. • • • Roy Lichtenstein’s treatment of dots uses a truly pop strategy as it stems from old colored newspaper cartoons with uniform dots in single-colored swaths surrounded by black lines that would make up images. He then restricts his color to imitate the four colors of printers’ inks, using Ben-Day dots; a system devised to increase the tonal range in commercial printing through a dot screen method. By enlarging the images in an all-over structure of dots, the artist actually arrives at the abstraction via the dots. In the 1971 lithograph and screenprint titled Modern Print (cat. no. 14 ), a detail of a larger image becomes a main motif, and the rhythm of repetition creates the main impetus for viewing.

Similar techniques allowed minimalist and post-minimalist and process- based artists to return to dots as a main organizing and structural principal that avoids the analytical use of color. The artists in this exhibition do not comply with a total composition of dots, but use dots in different ways. They co-exist here in an open-ended way—to connect the optical impetuses that use both persuasive structural insistence on dots as well as the potential of circular shapes’ manifold color constellations. • • • Terry Winters’s (b. 1949 ) monoprints Ghost # 9 , 2018 and Ghost # 5 , 2018 (cat. nos. 12, 13 ) invite the viewer to distribute attention between the dotted structure and the central ghostly shape. The artist’s process reveals that all his paintings originated from a drawing, or a composite of drawings. The drawings themselves incorporate and modify found imagery, and absorb the possibilities attained by science, especially when it comes to seeing. In this manner Winters can be connected to modern painting’s interest in the act of seeing, which dates back to Georges Seurat and his knowledge of optics. As noted by critics, Winters’s wavy lines are not elegant continuous lines, they are unexpected ones that capture the immediacy of the action of painting. The composition, as in this image, had to rely on the dialogue between the pattern of dots and the more multifaceted form, in a sort of parody of traditional balance. • • • Barry Le Va ( 1941 – 2021 ), a pioneer of Post-Minimalism and Process Art, created a unique body of work in a manner that pointed to a gradually strengthening inclination to express a sense of impermanence and chaos. In his powerful drawing in ink and pigment on paper (cat. no. 15 ) Bunker Coagulation , 1996 , the artist relies on the structure of dots to congregate within the black figurative shape, in order to denote the process of coagulation.

The Cuban artist Dolores “Loló” Soldevilla’s ( 1901 – 1971 ) Nido de Estrella (Star nest) , 1958 (cat. no. 9 ) allows circular shapes to create a logic of composition that thematizes a certain constellation. Soldevilla was one of the only women to be prominently associated with the development of geometric abstraction and the Concrete Art movement in Cuba. She found abstract compositions an appropriate playground to express her belief in personal freedoms. Abstract art was not really removed from social reality— as it was deemed by the new regime in the 1950 s “obsolete” and “out of touch with the new society,”—it actually promised a joy of the depicted colorful constellations. The abstract circles are thus concretized, and interpreted as signals of (universal) interconnectedness.

Jovana Stokic, PhD.

Jovana Stokic is on the faculty of the MFA Art Practice, SVA and NYU Steinhardt Department of Art and Art Professions. Stokic is a former fellow at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; a researcher at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the curator of the Kimmel Center Galleries, New York University; and the performance curator at Location One, New York.

1. Albert Dubois–Pillet french, 1846–1890 . Landscape at La Grande Jatte (Pré en contre–bas), 1884–86

Oil on canvas 10 5 ⁄ 8 x 7 3 ⁄

8 in. ( 27 x 18 . 9 cm)

Signed lower right

provenance: Felix Fénéon, Paris, by 1886 Private Collection, by 1967 Collection Régine and Guy Dulon, Beauchamp Sale Paris, Binoche Renaud-Giquello & Associés, June 19 , 2015 Stephen Ongpin Fine Art Private Collection since 2016 literature: Félix Fénéon. ‘L’Impressionnisme aux Tuileries’, L’Art Moderne de Bruxelles , 19 September 1886 . reprinted in Joan U. Halperin, ed., Félix Fénéon, Oeuvres plus que complètes, Geneva, 1970 , Vol.I, pp. 54 – 55 Lily Bazalgette. Albert Dubois-Pillet: sa vie et son oeuvre (1846–1890) . Villejuif, 1976 , p. 98 , pp. 162 – 163 , pp. 170 – 171 (as Pré en contre-bas and Paysage de la Grande Jatte ), not illustrated Marnin Young. ‘Fénéon’s Art Criticism,’ in Starr Figura, Isabelle Cahn and Philippe Peltier. Félix Fénéon: The Anarchist and the Avant-Garde . exhibition catalogue, MoMA: New York, 2020 , pp. 38 – 39 , fig. 20 exhibitions: Paris, Pavillon de la Ville de Paris. Troisième exposition de la Société des Artistes Indépendants . March–May 1887 . no. 153 (as Pré en contre-bas , lent by Fénéon)

Paris, Pavillon de la Ville de Paris. ‘Rétrospective Dubois-Pillet’, in Sep- tième exposition de la société des artistes indépendants . March–April 1891 . no. 434 (as Pré en contre-bas , lent by Fénéon) Paris, Galerie Braun et Cie. Le Néo-Impressionnisme , February–March 1932 . no. 11 (as Paysage , lent by Fénéon) Paris, Galerie Hervé. Quelques tableaux des maîtres néo-impressionnistes . May–June 1967 . no. 14 (as Paysage à la Grande Jatte ) Kochi, The Museum of Art, and elsewhere. Georges Seurat et le Néo-Im- pressionnisme 1885–1905 . p. 202 , no. 32 (as Le pré en contrebas )

2. H.P. Bremmer dutch, 1871–1956

Still life with Jugs and Bottles , March 1893

Oil on canvas 31 3 ⁄

8 by 36½ inches ( 79 . 5 by 92 . 9 cm.)

Dated ‘MRT 93 ’

provenance: Studio of the artist, 1955 By descent to the present owner Their sale, Christie’s, Paris, 23 October 2020 , lot 109 Private Collection, New York exhibitions: The Hague, Gemeentemuseum. Verzameling H.P. Bremmer , March 9 –April 23 , 1950 , possibly no. 20 .

3. Hippolyte Petitjean french, 1854–1929 . Sous-bois , 1890–94

Oil on board, laid on panel 11 5 ⁄ 8 x 15 5 ⁄

8 in. ( 29 . 6 x 40 cm)

provenance: Galerie Zack, Paris Private Collection, acquired from above in 1966 Samuel Josefowitz, Lausanne Sale Sothebys New York, May 4 , 2011 , lot 258 for $ 22 , 500 With Stephen Ongpin Fine Art Private Collection

exhibitions: ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Noordbrabants Museum. A Feast of Colour Post-Impressionists from private collections , 1990 , no 58 , pp. 160 – 161 Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum and Lausanne, Fondation de l’Hermitage. Pointillisme: Sur les traces de Seurat , 1997 , no 101 , p. 253

4. Pierre Bonnard French, 1867–1947 . O, Ombre (Dessin pour Un Alphabet sentimental), 1893

Brush and India ink with pencil on paper 7¼ x 7 7 ⁄ 8 in. ( 18 . 4 x 20 cm) Stamped with monogram lower right

provenance: Estate of the artist Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London E.V. Thaw & Co., New York D’Offay Couper Gallery, London Acquired from the above by Dr. George S. Heyer, Jr., December 1969 ; By descent until Sale, Christie’s New York, May 2018 . . literature: New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Pierre Bonnard The Graphic Art , December 5 , 1989 –January 4 , 1990 , p. 63 , ill. fig. 79

5. Hippolyte Petitjean french, 1854–1929 . Landscape with Sea and Cliffs, c. 1900

Watercolor on paper 12 x 17¼ in. ( 30 . 6 x 44 . 1 cm) Signed lower left

Courtesy Private Collection

6. Pierre Bonnard french, 1867–1947 . Vue Panoramic de Cannet, c. 1930

Oil on canvas 19 x 21 ¼ inches ( 48 x 54 cm.) Estate stamp lower left . provenance:

The estate of the Artist, inventory no. 40 (according to Dauberville) By descent in the family of Marthe Bonnard, to her nieces Aline & Marguerite Bowers, Paris Eugène Verchère, Paris By descent to Private Collection, Geneva, nephew of Eugène Verchère literature: Jean & Henry Dauberville. Bonnard, Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint 1888–1905 . Paris: Editions Bernheim-Jeune, 1992 , no. 1418 exhibitions: Le Cannet, France, Musée Bonnard. Un saison autour du Nu Orange- Les Collections . 23 November, 2019 – 7 June, 2020 , excat p. 101 .

7. Auguste Herbin french, 1882–1960

Poker, 1946

Gouache on paper 11¾ x 15 ¾ in. ( 29 . 8 x 40 cm) Signed and dated lower right; titled lower left

provenance: Galerie Liatowitsch, Basel Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, 1974 Private Collection.

exhibitions: Sidney Janis Gallery, New York. An Exhibition of Paintings & Gouaches by Herbin , December 4 – 31 , 1974 , excat. no. 24 Jill Newhouse Gallery, New York. Auguste Herbin Geometric Ab- straction: Works on Paper 1938–59 , October 20 –November 20 , 2015 , excat. no. 5

8. Auguste Herbin french, 1882–1960 . Lion, 1947

Gouache on paper 9¾ x 11¾ in. ( 24 . 8 x 29 . 8 cm) Signed and dated lower right; titled lower left . provenance: Galerie Liatowitsch, Basel Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, 1974 Private Collection . . exhibitions: Sidney Janis Gallery, New York. An ex- hibitions: of Paintings & Gouaches by Herbin , December 4 – 31 , 1974 , excat. no. 32 Jill Newhouse Gallery, New York.

Auguste Herbin Geometric Abstraction: Works on Paper 1938–59 , October 20 –November 20 , 2015 , excat. no. 6

9. Loló Soldevilla cuban, 1901–1971 . Nido de Estrella (Star nest), 1958

Oil on masonite 17¾ x 23 5 ⁄

8 in. ( 45 . 1 x 60 cm) Signed and dated by the artist, verso Accompanied by Certificate of Authenticity

© Martha Flora Carranza Barba, universal heir of the work of Loló Soldevilla Courtesy of Sean Kelly, New York.

10 . David Smith american, 1906–1965 . Untitled, 1962

Spray enamel on paper 21 x 27 in. ( 53 . 3 x 68 . 6 cm)

provenance: Estate of David Smith Donated by Rebecca and Candida Smith to MOCA Benefit Auction, 1996 Private Collection, Los Angeles, acquired at the above auction with Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles Private Collection since 2009 , acquired from the above

11 . Knox Martin american, b. 1923

Untitled, 1963

Oil and collage on paperboard 12 x 10 inches ( 30.5 x 25.4 cm) Signed lower right

provenance: The artist With Rose Fried Gallery, New York Rose Fried, New York, as a gift from the artist By descent to Private Collection, CA

© 2020 Knox Martin/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Courtesy Hollis Taggart Gallery

12 . Damien Hirst british, b. 1965

Kitten White, 2016

Household gloss on canvas 48 x 48 inches ( 121.9 x 121.9 cm)

provenance: Private Collection

© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, dacs 2021 Photographed by Prudence Cumming Associates Ltd

13 . Terry Winters american, b. 1949 . Ghost #5, 2018

Monoprint with engraving and embossment on Twinrocker handmade paper Image: 30 3 ⁄ 8 x 23 in. ( 77 . 2 x 58 . 7 cm) Signed recto in graphite

Courtesy Two Palms, New York

14 . Terry Winters american, b. 1949 . Ghost #9, 2018

Monoprint with engraving and embossment on Twinrocker handmade paper Image: 30 3 ⁄ 8 x 23 in. ( 77 . 2 x 58 . 7 cm) Signed recto in graphite

Courtesy Two Palms, New York

15. Roy Lichtenstein american, 1923–1997 . Modern Print, 1971

Lithograph and screenprint 30 7 ⁄ 8 x 30 7 ⁄ 8 in. ( 78 . 4 x 78 . 4 cm) Signed, dated, numbered in pencil, lower margin Edition number 137 of 200 plus proofs Printer: Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles, California for MoMA literature: Corlett, Mary L, and Roy Lichtenstein. The Prints of Roy Lichten- stein: A Catalogue Raisonne, 1948–1993 . New York: Hudson Hills Press in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C, 1994 . no. 103 , p. 119

Courtesy Susan Sheehan Gallery.

16 . Barry Le Va american, 1941–2021 . Bunker Coagulation, 1996 Ink and graphite on paper 14 3 ⁄ 16 x 9 7 ⁄ 8 in. ( 36 x 25 . 1 cm) Signed and dated lower center

literature: Barry Le Va, Ingrid Schaffner, and Rhea Anastas. Accumulated Vision: Barry Le Va . Philadelphia, PA: Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, 2005 . illus. p. 198 . exhibitions: New York, David Nolan Gallery. Barry Le Va: Part One. Drawings 1967– 2017 , November 14 , 2019 –February 1 , 2020 Porto, Portugal, Museu Serralves, Museu de Arte Contemporanea. Barry Le Va , July 28 –October 15 , 2006

Courtesy of the Estate of Barry Le Va and David Nolan Gallery.

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13 . Terry Winters american, b. 1949 . Ghost #5, 2018

Monoprint with engraving and embossment on Twinrocker handmade paper Image: 30 3 ⁄ 8 x 23 in. ( 77 . 2 x 58 . 7 cm) Signed recto in graphite

Courtesy Two Palms, New York

14 . Terry Winters american, b. 1949 . Ghost #9, 2018

Monoprint with engraving and embossment on Twinrocker handmade paper Image: 30 3 ⁄ 8 x 23 in. ( 77 . 2 x 58 . 7 cm) Signed recto in graphite

Courtesy Two Palms, New York

15. Roy Lichtenstein american, 1923–1997 . Modern Print, 1971

Lithograph and screenprint 30 7 ⁄ 8 x 30 7 ⁄ 8 in. ( 78 . 4 x 78 . 4 cm) Signed, dated, numbered in pencil, lower margin Edition number 137 of 200 plus proofs Printer: Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles, California for MoMA literature: Corlett, Mary L, and Roy Lichtenstein. The Prints of Roy Lichten- stein: A Catalogue Raisonne, 1948–1993 . New York: Hudson Hills Press in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C, 1994 . no. 103 , p. 119

Courtesy Susan Sheehan Gallery.

16 . Barry Le Va american, 1941–2021 . Bunker Coagulation, 1996 Ink and graphite on paper 14 3 ⁄ 16 x 9 7 ⁄ 8 in. ( 36 x 25 . 1 cm) Signed and dated lower center

literature: Barry Le Va, Ingrid Schaffner, and Rhea Anastas. Accumulated Vision: Barry Le Va . Philadelphia, PA: Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, 2005 . illus. p. 198 . exhibitions: New York, David Nolan Gallery. Barry Le Va: Part One. Drawings 1967– 2017 , November 14 , 2019 –February 1 , 2020 Porto, Portugal, Museu Serralves, Museu de Arte Contemporanea. Barry Le Va , July 28 –October 15 , 2006

Courtesy of the Estate of Barry Le Va and David Nolan Gallery.

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