Irving Petlin: Pastels (1961-1987)

Written by Paul Cummings.

Petlin’s pastels of the previous 40 years result from memory and history building on its own mysterious world of fantastic resources. One of the most gifted members of the mid-fifties Chicago school, Petlin’s mastery of the pastel medium is illuminated here.

“Pastel is the unforgiving medium – there is no going back, every move indelible.  The medium developed in the 18th Century (Léotard) and later explored by Odilon Redon, Degas, Manet and others, survives today in the hands of very few artists.  Somehow, I cannot stop exploring the medium.  Color radiates from a pastel in a unique way.  The crystaline structure of the great color with the paper’s light throwing capacity creates a new kind of space –  a universe « huge », but a surface «small » .  It transports the eye into a deep space that does not exist, yet is felt, often deeply, as if the eye says, “I have been there.”  -IP