Joseph Marioni and Peter Tollens at Wade Wilson Art April 1, 2011

Wade Wilson Art is pleased to announce a special exhibit pairing the leading European and the leading American painters from the Concrete Painting movement featuring new paintings by the American painter Joseph Marioni and the German painter Peter Tollens. The exhibit opens with a reception for the artists from 6 to 8 pm on Friday, April 1, 2011 and will remain on view through May 28, 2011. Wade Wilson Art is located at 4411 Montrose Blvd., Suite 200, Houston, Texas, 77006.



Joseph Marioni and Peter Tollens, the leading figures of the Concrete Painting Movement in the United States and Europe respectively, continue as trans-Atlantic colleagues. The Concrete painting Movement finds its roots in early Modernism in works by De Stijl artist Theo Van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian, Theo van Doesburg first defined the movement saying, “Art should receive nothing from Nature’s formal properties or from sensuality or sentimentality. We want to exclude lyricism, dramaticism, symbolism, etc. The picture should be constructed entirely from purely plastic elements, that is to say, planes and colours. A pictorial element has no other significance than ‘itself’ and therefore the picture has no other significance than ‘itself.’” (20th-Century Index, Dr. Michael Delahoyde)



The movement grew and proceeded into the 20th century with painters such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Brice Marden, and Robert Ryman. The legacy of the Concrete Painting Movement continues led by Joseph Marioni and Peter Tollens whose philosophies and artistry continue the legacy of this movement and whose recent paintings comprise this exhibit.



Since 1970, both Marioni and Tollens have created paintings that all share a number of characteristics: their coloration is generally warm and appears monochromatic; the surface is lush, tactile, and subtly textured; they are finely crafted objects; they are about light; and most important, despite their scale, they relate to the viewer in an intimate, experiential way.