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Art News 1973 Chase Riboud 

Stephen (141 Prince; June 7-23) has been an abstract painter for a long time; a contemporary of the first New York School generation, he was editor of the magazine Tiger's Eye in the late '40s and early '50s. In the latest show, he works with a basic format, a large disc which almost fills a squarish canvas, nearly touching the edges of the canvas at the sides, with a little more space at top and bottom. This disc is separated from its background by  several slender concentric rings of color, which intensify a sense of the canvas ground; they also give the disc an almost ineffable quality, bridging separate sense experiences, animating a continuous balance, blending two spaces, fusing two places. This effect is hardly a mechanical one, and it is further transformed by Stephan's distinctive use of color, which has a lyric eloquence that is rarely encountered. He uses subtle tertiary colors which echo the sense of fusion and synthesis carried by the image. 
Certain obvious aspects of the format, especially the uniform surface of the central disc, might suggest a relationship to a current tendency which might be called "Empty Center Painting." But Stephan's work has nothing to do with critical theories or design recipes. It is the fruit of a profound inward effort, and it provides a fine contemplative experience. Apparently, his format is a slowly fashioned instrument intended to evoke a certain mood. The work shown here spans several years, and develops out of "zones of quiet" found in his earlier work. These remarkable paintings are like gongs which have just been struck, sounding a vibrant clarity. Yet they do not dazzle; they have a gentle glow, with the coolness and inner mystery of stone.
William Wiley (Frumkin) showed a large and impressive group of drawings, watercolors, lithographs, constructions and paintings, the largest paintings being especially fine. The works are characteristic Wiley: somewhat like storytelling maps subjected to metaphysical, nonsensical graffiti and fetishistic patching or addition. They project a curious mixture of childhood nostalgia and the expiring lore of the American frontier, but seem to veil an inner enigma. 
Wiley's work has been quite influential, but this has involved mainly subject matter and surface appearance; none of his disciples are impressive. Perhaps this is because Wiley himself has a rarefied sensibility; his work is also very well realized, and is powerfully effective in a visual sense. His visionary images are animated by choreographic lines which give a pulsing corporeality through rhythmic linear texture. This texture seems even more personal than his handwriting; it suggests aboriginal markings, incised bone, branch and stone, blended with natural linear patterning like that encountered in mountainous desert landscapes.
Richard Lippold (Willard) has turned from large-scale architectural projects to produce a related series of smaller works. His work has always had an epic strength paradoxically  founded in its gracefulness and delicacy; this continues here, but the abrupt change from public scale and theme gives these new works a sense of intimacy that encourages close association. Floating and crystalline, traced in fine stainless steel and gold wire, they charge the surrounding atmosphere. They are as sensitive as nervous systems, responding to vibrations and small movements of air, with each evanescent glint of line suggesting vast currents of unseen energy.
Barbara Chase Riboud (Rankow) showed jewelry derived from her sculpture, and some sculptures and drawings as well. She works with a juxtaposition of hard and soft materials, somewhat along the stylistic lines of Hesse, Oldenburg and Morris. Her work takes a different turn, though, employing polished workmanship, a more formalized juxtaposition and more traditional materials. This may be somewhat less adventurous, but she gets good results. The sculpture has a soft but powerful presence which gets lost in the translation to jewelry; but the beauty of the form comes through, with much of its original character. So Riboud ends up with very distinctive jewelry, well realized in exquisite and unusual combinations such as gold, silk, and oxidized silver.
Peter Saul (Frumkin) showed two large-scale canvases in Dayglo color, dealing with historical themes, [[italics]] Custer's Last Stand [[/italics]] and [[italics]] Liddul [little] Guernica [[/italics]]. The latter is a rather uninventive Picasso parody touched with Saul's humor, which deals mainly with misspelled words, and is hardly sidesplitting. A head of Picasso wears a beret labeled "PAABLOW." [[italics]] Custer's Last Stand [[/italics]] suggests that Saul is sometimes influenced by Underground Comix, especially the scatological battle-orgies of S. Clay Wilson, which also feature decapitation, vomiting and exploding flesh. But Wilson does it much better, much much better, page after page after page.
Lynn Sweat (Roko) develops enigmatic images of figures and animals, in strangely stylized landscapes, using rich attractive color. His figures draw upon primitive sources; the faces often suggests Eskimo masks. The figures are carefully rendered or precisely developed to gain presence and dominate their settings. 
Herbert Hazeltine (1877-1962) was recently the subject of a benefit exhibition (at Graham) for the National Museim of Racing at Saratoga Springs. A resolutely academic sculptor, his subject matter is his most interesting feature. Hazeltine had a thorough knowledge of finely-bred animals, displaying this is works depicting, among others, Ballantrae, Spearmint, and Man o' War.
Roger Jorgensen's (141 Prince and Sachs) large sculptures unite a Minimal style with kinetic possibilities, adding softness and romance to the static severity of the arrangements. Elements within several pieces, generally thick geometric planar shapes, are balanced on pins or set over pivots. The works are designed for outdoor locations, where they might interact with the wing, like elephantine weather vanes. AL BRUNELLE

Paul Waldman's new painting-objects were seen this spring (at Castelli) in his first exhibition since 1965. It was a fascinating, idiosyncratic and complex show. His present work is directly related to his earlier small, meticulous pencil drawings of sections of beautiful bodies. Now, however, the figures have developed to a much larger scale and are incorporated into sleek, racily geometric, often multi-unit constructions, with immaculate, glossy white fronts. On their beveled or closely butted sides appear drastically cropped fragments of nude figures, smoothly rendered in luminous grisaille. Although used in a very abstract way, the body fragments often occur in suggestive (though not explicitly sexual) juxtapositions.
The large, aggressive white facades have a subdued luxury; built  up from many layers of polished oil paint from which all trace of hand if effaced, they are subtly inflected like satin or perhaps (in the context of the imagery) like flesh. Indeed, next to the sumptuous whites, the figural areas, also in oil, are painted somewhat drily.
Waldman's imagery can be seen only in oblique, shadowed view. Certain images are repeated in sequences which are difficult to decipher in their semi-conducted locations. Thus, both the patently beautiful shapes and their serial positioning are perversely inaccessible. This systematic frustration of the viewer's attempts to see results, first, in the metamorphosis of potentially cold, self-contained elements of form into something involving, expressive and personal. In addition, the concealment and discontinuity of the potentially provocative bodies heighten their erotic character, as they slide away into seemingly forbidden crevices. The viewer, teased into an intent inspection of these areas, becomes a voyeur.
These pieces appear at a moment when much recent work tends toward openness, accessibility, relaxation. By contrast, Waldman's work, beyond its secretiveness, flaunts a suave, academic perfectionism of form, imagery and technique. Its artfulness and obsessive craft challenge not only recent modes, but the impersonality of 
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