Douglas Witmer's Simplicity

Douglas Witmer, panel 6/6 of the 6-part painting Winterbrook, 2017, black gesso and acrylic on canvas. 6 panels, 17 x 14 inches each (courtesy of the artist and Tiger Strikes Asteroid)
Douglas Witmer, panel 6/6 of the 6-part painting Winterbrook, 2017, black gesso and acrylic on canvas. 6 panels, 17 x 14 inches each (courtesy of the artist and Tiger Strikes Asteroid)

Becky Huff Hunter reviews Douglas Witmer: Dubh Glas at Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Philadelphia, on view through March 12, 2017.

Hunter writes: "Each work in Witmer’s austere Winterbrook (2015‒17) series of six small panels brings out a different relational quality between paint and canvas: black wash opens up the flawed pores of the canvas grain; dense, dry paint marks the presence of the wooden stretcher as in a rubbing; carefully applied, grey and white thinly glazed layers make another panel’s surface appear taut and tremulous like drumskin."