By Daniel Albert
The New Orleans Art Review
November/December 1983
That abstract expressionism is a source still rich with possibilities for development is a proposition sustained by the work of Geoffrey Lardiere at his recent exhibition at the Aaron Hastings Gallery.
The building blocks for Lardiere's motifs are horizontal and vertical rectangles and bars rendered in irregular but fresh fashion. There are times when his compositions call to mind the work of Motherwell and Still, but Lardiere transcends mere derivation by conscientiously incorporating tactics from other aesthetic movements not that obviously related to abstract expressionist modes. For example, Lardiere seems to borrow heavily from the punk people, with his aggressive use of off color, and liberal use of the slashing brushstroke. Stella's influence also manifests itself where some of Lardiere's bars are actually built into the canvas, at angles neither parallel nor perpendicular to the canvas' plane. Finally. ''New Birmingham No.4" affords suggestions of a constructivist influence. with its three dimensional arrangements of colored lines.
Mr. Lardiere's show is intriguing to the point of challenging, as one follows his dialogues with various artistic conventions. If I have any reservations with Lardiere's presentations it is that he might be carrying on too many conversations at once. I have the feeling that Mr. Lardiere has yet to find the voice that is truly his. The pieces in the show seemed to fall into roughly three categories. which appeared too disparate from one another to suggest an artist who has ultimately settled upon his own means of expression. One set of paintings joined bars and rectangles to convey a stitching effect, and I found that to be rather affected. The "Section No I" and "Section No.2" pieces evidence solid composition, and intimated Motherwell, but they bordered on the derivative. The ''constructivist'' piece stood out like a Perlstein in the Pollock section. The most satisfying pieces in the show for me were "Birmingham No 23" and "Birmingham No. 24", and which seemed to reveal an artist who had taken his sources and merged them into a new, evocation synthesis which was uniquely his own. It remains to be seen which course Mr. Lardiere will ultimately adopt. More importantly. perhaps. his explorations promise to be interesting.
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