Louise P. Sloane

Since 1974 Louise P. Sloane has been engaged in the studio as an abstract painter.  Each of her works are infused with highly personal text that inspires and motivates her to keep growing and experimenting.

Louise P. Sloane’s paintings emanate from a long and rich tradition in art history. The visual language of Sloane's paintings embrace the legacy of reductive and minimalist ideologies while celebrating the beauty of color, and a human affinity for mark making.

In the second quarter of the nineteenth century, J.M.W. Turner pushed the limits of using dramatic color. In 1839, a French chemist named Michel Eugene Chevreul published his treatise on the vibrant interaction of the complementary pairings of color, which include, red-green, orange-blue and yellow-violet. Monet rejoiced in the complementary colors’ tendency to reinforce one another, painting red poppies in green fields. It was in this vein that van Gogh, after painting The Night Cafe in Arles, explained to his brother Theo, "I tried to express the terrible passions of humanity by contrasts of red and green."

Louise P. Sloane joins the ranks of a small but mighty group of great artists including Ellsworth Kelly, Piet Mondrian, Mark Rothko, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Anton Albers and Barnett Newman. Like these monumental artists before her, she has dedicated her life's work to exploring the limitless possibilities of a single theme; an insistence on color.

The work focuses upon geometric forms, grids and patterns. These detail-oriented works are typically divided into rectangles or squares. The square has become a repetitive motif, which along with the grid provides structure for all of these paintings. Similar compositional principles underlie each work with some slight modifications. Commonly the image is divided into five parts:  four rectangles and a central square. Whether the square is dimensionally similar to the outer rectangles or not, it always dominates, creating a central core for the flow of the painting.  It is important that the works present themselves as human made objects. Not wanting to obfuscate the traditional precepts of reductive art, she utilizes this rich past and moves forward through her modifications and additions.   The flaws and imperfections of the repetitive handmade patterns and physical motion and depth of paint are accentuated by the geometric formalities within the paintings’ structure.  Regardless of the painting’s texture and color, the square prevails, providing harmony and unity. The complex color contrasts intensify the three dimensionality of the texture, and compete for the viewer’s focus, keeping the eyes and mind in constant motion, fusing my interests in geometry, color, and light.

Sloane’s paintings have been shown in a multitude of museums including, the New Britain Museum of American Art, the Hunterdon Museum of Art, Coral Springs Museum of Art, the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Cornell Museum of Art and History, and the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art.

Courtesy of Spanierman Modern