Thomas Nozkowski, who sadly passed away in 2019, created paintings like no one else. Each piece was a unique journey through color and shape, a world all its own. A recent exhibition at Pace Gallery, titled "The Last Paintings," showcased 15 works he created in the final years of his life. Though each painting is modest in size, they are anything but modest in emotion or artistic ambition. Each piece measures 22 x 28 inches and is painted in oil on linen stretched over a panel. There’s been a lot of great writing about this show and Nozkowski’s work, including heartfelt tributes from those who knew him: artist Tom McGlynn in the Brooklyn Rail and writer John Yau in Hyperallergic. The New York Times also ran an article, full of praise and studio photos. I don’t feel I have anything new or profound to add, but I wanted to add my voice to the chorus of admiration for this truly beautiful and touching exhibition.
In the painting above, with its interconnected organic shapes and the mix of blues and greens, I can’t help but think of a landscape—maybe even one turned sideways. But the bright, hopeful feeling of these shapes is softened by the subtle blacks behind them, where rounded forms emerge from the darkness, almost like ghosts. Nozkowski’s skill with paint is incredible, using so many different techniques in this piece alone: here, clear, crisp, opaque forms are set against vertical transparencies, all blending together perfectly. Of course, photographs can’t fully capture the richness of the paint's texture. (If you click on the image, you can see more detail.)
Floating colored circles are visible through transparent, wavy shapes, like things seen underwater. The image feels light and lyrical, but the bright white circles, some overlapping, create a sharp contrast that’s a bit jarring. It’s easy to try to figure out where Nozkowski’s images come from, since they seem to have roots in the real world—maybe landscapes, movies, or books—but in the end, it doesn’t really matter. In a great interview with Art News in 2016, he goes into detail about his painting ideas and methods. One thing he said about sources really stood out:
“Well, here’s the thing, once you say you’re using sources and you have content, people think that’s the end of the story—that’s what it’s about. But of course you know absolutely nothing…”
A viaduct of colors crosses black and white terrain, connecting shapes recalling water and land. I love the way the solid mass of blue, a stable element, contrasts with the jazzy goings on––disparate yet connected––in the black and white center of the painting.
Here is another painting in which the center is a total surprise in its radical difference from what surrounds it. I'm in awe of how Nozkowski came up with these ideas, and with the techniques to pull them off. Strongly colored shapes, outlined in pale yellow, border, on two sides, a busy field of red and yellow.
Irregular colored shapes float gently––or are they broken pieces falling?––above a cool gray ground, which is composed of many small adjoining and overlapping shapes. The foreground shapes are primarily soft greens, but then there's that insistent red square and the orange shape alongside it. The red square demands attention, as if to say that things aren't as you expect them to be; that there's always a surprise in store.
Another surprise is that there is a gray shape that overlaps the corner of the orange one. Even though the grays are painted delicately, transparently, here one breaks its polite place in space and moves forward. This is such a great twist, one that upends certainties.
Seeing Thomas Nozkowski's last paintings was an exhilarating experience. With his vivid painterly imagination he presents to us wide-ranging, glorious human possibilities.