The wide open spaces
by Anne Passeron
In 1994, Anne Passeron wrote this text to present Joe Neill's work at his exhibition in the Lélia Mordoch gallery.
The wide open spaces. This is how Joe Neill characterizes the scope of his investigations. As an artist and pioneer, he is inspired by the great scientific discoveries of our century specifically, geography, research in time and space, origin of life and the evolution of the earth and universe. His work has its origins in Minimalism which accounts for his strong interest in structures that have become increasingly complexe. His recent sculptures in wood vinyl and plastic offer us a vision of a universe expanding with one or two centers that have surrounding them many interacting relationships. In the drawings, the study of the attractions between the spheres and the movements from the center outward create a visual richness that is almost hypnotic.
Fascinated by structures, Joe Neill gives his sculptures and drawings a visual impact which is close to those of architects models and charts. The forms and images that he gives us evokes a cosmic architecture with a Baroque transparence. Charged with musical connotations(music of the spheres)these works have the grace of graphic poems. As works that come from the imagination they give form to an area of contemporary knowledge that escapes the possibility of representation and creates pieces that have the strength of fantastic utopias.
This is how Joe Neill, American artist and pioneer of the 20th century, is linked with the genius of the Renaissance.
Anne Passeron – Paris, February 1994
