IN HIS FIRST SHOW SINCE THE GOLDFINCH VARIATIONS,
PATRICK McFARLIN SOLOS AT PHILSPACE
The title of McFarlin’s exhibition FRESH OIL, CRAZY QUILT PAINTINGS and WORD PICTURES gives us a clue to the shows subjects. FRESH OIL refers to the newest work—large paintings on unstretched cotton dropcloths such as Annual Report (a kind of three-ring circus where the actors are a clown, a jester, animated paint tubes and the soberly rendered McFarlin). The CRAZY QUILT PAINTINGS were originally conceived as designs for actual quilts, although none have been produced as quilts at this time. A bit smaller than a double-bed quilt, these works on paper take on the gun issue (Sleep Tight), the agony of splintered personality (Too Many Bad Ideas) and shades of grey (Fifty). McFarlin’s WORD PICTURES use passages from great books as the armature for his color. He also refers to this work as his Great Books Foundation. Paragraphs from Kerouac, McCullers, Proust, Faulkner, Orwell and others are pictured.