Martin Weinstein: Vedute Palinsesti
The title of Martin Weinstein’s exhibition, Vedute Palinsesti, refers to the remaining traces after earlier marks are effaced to make room for newer writing in medieval manuscripts. Like the concept of the palimpsest, (Palinsesto in Italian), Weinstein’s paintings are layers of different points in time, with memories of former experiences overlain by more recent visual experiences expressed by luminous, gestural and deft brushwork.
By painting on layers of translucent acrylic sheets and allowing these layers to re-combine and glow through one another, Martin Weinstein presents different stages of seeing. At first glance, these artworks seem rooted in the landscape tradition however the paintings present perceptions that together become an individual record of space and being. In Vedute Palinsesti, the combined images are painted in multiple sessions of direct observation from Weinstein’s rented studio in the Castello sector of Venice. Painted at different times, different days - and sometimes even years apart - the artworks are always from the same point of view. The final layer, placed in the furthest back, is an abstract panel that supports the realistic layers above signifying the ultimate unknowability of reality that underpins all perception. These multiple sheets of acrylic record a period of time, experience and memory and acknowledge that all these perceptions are illusory. Richard Vine observes about Weinstein’s unique painting style: “Although the results are deceptively traditional-looking landscapes, the process and the pictorial technique are quietly radical.”
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Venice, 2 Afternoons © Martin Weinstein 2021 11 x 13.5 x 2.5 inches
The 11 paintings in this installation follow the times of the day starting with the soft pink glow of morning light, traveling to the brilliant clarity of mid-day and slowly transforming to the dark shadows of evening punctuated by the sharp, staccato specks of reflected light. Because of the perennially shifting layers within each painting, the artworks belie their small scale, each one measuring not more than 11” x 16.5” x 2.5” and therefore appear much larger and nuanced. The visual cacophony of diverse watercrafts plying the mouth of the Grand Canal simmers down to a memory in the tiny dancing lights of the night views. No matter the time of day, the heavens never lose their drama as clouds roil across the landscape and absorb bristling towers as well as the soft, rounded domes of Venice. Sometimes, the painted waters part briefly to reveal a second church floating in their waves, other times, it is a tower valiantly pressing against the storm clouds that finds its echo in the depths of the evening sky.
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Venice, 2 Sunsets © Martin Weinstein 2013, 11” x 16.5” x 2.5 inches |
Although Martin Weinstein’s paintings are specific to Venice, the artist uses these historic and contemporary manifestations of this famous city as a catalyst for examining and isolating the layered process of painting. Rather than hide each painted level surface permanently below the previous layer, leaving the finished layer to sum up and seal the process, Martin Weinstein instead isolates each level of painting, allowing the viewers’ mind to recombine them and amplify the optical illusion of vision. It is through this spatial illusion that Weinstein reveals his true subject matter - not gorgeous architecture of a beloved city nor the small human activity that scurries about but the slowly enveloping experience of time.
Martin Weinstein’s virtual catalogue for Vedute Palinsesti can be viewed here.
Martin Weinstein Vedute Palinsesti is on view at Castello 925, Fondamenta San Giuseppe 780, Sestiere Castello, Venice Italy through July 10, 2022
