Peter Young

I remember coming across this Peter Young painting a couple years ago at abstract-art.com . At the time, my only choice for research was Google Images and there wasn't much about him (image wise)on the web. But this painting of his - # 15, 1968

96 X 108 inches, Acrylic on Canvas - really caught my eye. Pointillist abstraction. What a concept. There was a feeling of validation in seeing other artists who painted dots because that's what I was doing at the time. Through the years I've come across the work of quite a few artists who either did this as a series or a phase or even made a career of it. Some paint their dots independent of each other; give them room to breathe. Other artists join them and or overlap them for a more traditionally, pointillist approach. But this painting in particular really did catch my eye and sparked a lot of ideas.

Usually I'll start with an abstract background, then cover that with tracing paper with writing. When applying the dots of paint, I mainly try to ignore the background so that the end result will be a surprise, but actually that's not possible and you find yourself interacting with places here and there. In general I've always tried to make it a sort of scientific project. . . .

But I digress - back to Peter Young

So now, it seems that Peter has been rediscovered, with 2 shows in New York City. One at the Mitchell Algus Gallery and the other at PS1. See a video of the Exhibit at PS1(as posted on You Tube) here. There's a very informative review at The BrooklynRail. And you can see the New York Times slide show here. His show is much more than just dots.