"The only inclination that one can have is, progressively, to purify the transfer of nature to canvas." --Andre Derain

Each of the artists whose works comprise "Modern Masters of the 20th Century" seems to conform to this statement, printed in the exhibition catalogue, in one way or another.

The exhibition includes a patterned succession of sketches, lithographs, Aquatints, canvases and sculptures which draw together many of the aspects of early and mid-twentieth century art. All of the artists display their tendencies towards the abstraction of form and contour, a characteristic of the trend that modern art has created.

The method of "transfer of nature to canvas" differs from artist to artist, but the underlying theme seems to be a simplification of natural forms to their bare essence. The genre attempts to narrow the dichotomy between form and content. The artists' subjects are brought to the surface by means of abstraction: the figures or objects are stripped of the paraphernalia that composes form and are, instead, reduced to only content.

Whether one peruses Matisse, the master reductionist, who uses plain black brush strokes to sketch a woman's face in "Tete,"--or Dufy, who uses a charcoal pencil to delineate contours without filling in the flesh of bourgeois French men in "Personnage"--the figures create a dynamism that only modern art evinces. This visual movement strongly contrasts the static and frigid characters of nineteenth century French artists like Ingres and David, whose canvases present both form and content, with the former prevailing.

An attention to detail that modern art neglects is evident in David's "The Death of Socrates." Both Ingres and David--to name a few neo-classicists--present us with paintings that stagnate: the subject, object and therefore the motivation is frozen. This immobility contrasts the modern artist's attempt to break stagnation by re-vitalizing contours.

Leger, the cubo-futurist, also shows signs of the intense energy that characterized futurism. All the events in his painting "Fleur de Tournesol," painted in 1953, radiate with signs of motion. The petals of the flower seem to move towards the edges of the painting.

Modern Masters of the 20th Century

at the Pucker Safrai

Gallery

Through April 30

Although Leger is a contemporary of the famous Jackson Pollack, who transfers nature onto the canvas through the spontaneous splash of paint, he utilizes a more controlled approach. Leger transforms nature, in this case, the flower, onto the canvas by means of dynamic contour manipulation.

Dubuffet, Derain, Chagall and Pascin each add to the transformation of nature to the canvas. Dubuffet uses a color scheme in his canvas entitled "Site avec 2 Personnages" (1982). The bright red strokes guide the eye through the painting. This method of color contour tracking is a unique method of painting (reminiscent of Van Gogh) that Dubuffet manipulates carefully.

Derain demonstrates his love for contour in his watercolors. Whether the contours are angular, as in "Personnages," or sinuous, as in "Nude, 1935," the use of line is Derain's primary tool of manipulation.

Pascin paints women, in their fleshy and full form. Their full-figuredness adds to their beauty rather than detracts from it.

Chagall, the surrealist, offers no signs of architectural or sculptural space in his color lithographs. His lithographs appear soft on the surface; instead of using a single line to delineate a contour, he uses several smaller strokes. His method of transformation of nature uses the surrealist and soft impression as its primary tool.

Henry Moore transforms nature onto paper in a unique way: he transfers the strength of sculptural space onto his sketches. He uses charcoal instead of the chisel to craft his malleable and almost tangible forms. One can almost feel the soft, waxy body of the forms that he sketches. Although the forms he sketches is abstract, the image appears very real.

Just when one has absorbed his wonderful ability to create a live image with "Notebook 2, Drawing 25," one encounters another sketch of his which contradicts everything that he accomplished in the prior sketch. His forms are angular and two-dimensional in "Notebook 3, Drawing 10." Moore's versatility is evident, and thus, rather than define his style, it is more sensible to simply acknowledge his multiple artistic skills.

The most striking aspect of the Pucker Safrai Exhibit is a painting by Picasso. "Femme au Fauteuil," painted in 1948, reflects the shell-shocking influence of the Second World War. It depicts a woman in two-dimensional, almost paralyzed, form. Her stare is blank, and she appears so confused that it appears vapid.

Picasso's pre-cubist phase where he concentrated on destroying a priori space is evident here, as it was in the Matisses. A Priori space is the conventional three-dimensional, perspectively accurate depiction of depth that originated with Giotto and Pierro Della Francesca in the Renaissance.

Modern art has taken upon itself the task of destroying that space, a process which began with Cezanne, the father of modern art. The lines between the subject, in this case the woman, and the background reveal no sense of depth or perspective.

The Matisse "Odalisque" uses the floral designs on Odalisque's jewelry and scarf and the designs on the wallpaper behind her to blend the foreground with the background. Picasso, in his "Femme au Fauteuil" also blurs these lines and presents a surface-tense, vibrant and mesmerizing painting that alone is worth the trip to Newbury Street.