Lighting One Little Candle

Tom Bacher continues to shed light on his unique talents

REVIEW BY FRAN WATSON

Tom Bacher's glowing landscapes have become part of the Cincinnati art scene. His is the stunning skyline spanning several stories of the Omni Netherlands Hotel. And the continuing saga of his explorations into the artistic possibilities of endowing paintings with time as interpreted through diminishing light seems to have no end.

A few years back, Bacher was showing some layered abstractions whose appearance changed bit by bit as the phosphorescent paint lost absorbed light. In these pieces, the metamorphosis was an unmistakable incorporation of completely new compositions taking place right before the viewer's eyes. The drama of such a method is stunning and, unfortunately, often overshadows the classic fine art qualities he commands.

Few artists, though, maintain the kind of integrity and conviction of their chosen media as Bacher. He is completely devoted to the qualities of light and time found in the use of phosphorescent paint. For scoffers and non-believers, he cites the outrage of traditional painters when the Impressionists introduced the new vision of art that ultimately initiated the brightest and best art movements we embrace today. Bacher views his work merely as a continuation of that long-ago preoccupation with capturing a moment by capturing hours on his canvases.

In his current show at Cincinnati Art Galleries, the subject matter covers the nation from electric Las Vegas to eclectic Mount Adams. There are wide open spaces in Arizona and snowy peaks of ski towns. Familiar old-world hillside streets rising from the Cincinnati flood plain at dizzying angles share the walls with wooded parks overlooking our flashy big city horizon.

"Mt. Airy #1" is a nighttime peek over the rim of a hill with tips of downtown just barely visible. Bacher's trees, framing the compact format, are nearly sculptural lace raised from the surface in painstaking variety. Along the streets and in parking lots, shiny cars become objets d'art by reflecting the night lights like fantastic embroidery on their roofs and hoods. And this time, Bacher has honed in on many scenes with more intimate views, keyhole compositions that do wonderful things through judicious cropping.

There are two particular facets of Bacher's current exhibit which illustrate new directions. Many of the works shown are smaller than admirers have come to expect. Dimensions as little as 10 inches by 15 inches bring the focus down to the nitty gritty of plain good art. At this size, his flawless perspective and clever content of placement, color and texture become more noticeable, along with an excellence of drawing skills that often becomes overpowered in the awe of sheer size of canvases as big as the 36-by-54-inch "Stardust Reflections." As daylight recedes from the painted skies, one is aware of the planning necessary to allow the smooth color shift to be a natural part of the work and the importance of seamless draftsmanship to keep all elements working throughout the transition.

"Forty Second Street," small and precious, actually portrays a tiny slice of a street with fragments of cars entering or leaving the picture plane and buildings looped with garlands of electrified advertisements. What they say is of no importance. Their free-fall of light, bouncing on the world around them in a cozy, shifty composition reinvents the cityscape even without the glow.

The second surprise is a really new venture for Bacher, born of the modern wonders of acrylic medium. He has layered clear acrylic, with each layer holding all-over acrylic painted calligraphy. Very abstract, the surfaces appear rich and transparent, revealing other semi-visible levels and lending subtle interest to the whole. From the side of the canvas, the thickness of the acrylic medium can be easily detected, but the layered separations are imperceptible. When light is withdrawn from these pieces, each layer fades to reveal new sets of wriggling images, writing and doodles -- most of which are related to the artist's life -- until the final, most representative layer, which holds the light longest. A quiet, creamy effect when the gallery is lit quickly becomes cluttered with rapidly changing information in the dark.

These paintings (or constructions) are great indications of how much is left to be done in the barely touched arena of light release. Only a few artists are involved at this time -- all, like Bacher, enthusiastically loyal to phosphorescents.

Like most prophets, artistic and otherwise, Bacher is a sure sellout in his European exhibits, and New York receives him with open arms. Here in his hometown, however, his critics are accorded the prerogatives of familiarity, a fact that often puzzles the artist and very likely prompts him to push his experiments to the edge. This different drummer leaves town next for an upcoming show in Brussels. Catch him here while you can.

CINCINNATI ART GALLERIES presents Tom Bacher's Metamorphic Paintings through March 28.

CityBeat, Vol. 4, Issue 15; March 5-11, 1998