Art Review: Paintings find power in irony, detail, mystery

"Something in the Air" by Tim Crowder is part of the artist's exhibition of new paintings, "Building a Proper Wall."

Sometimes the most uncanny or mysterious works of art are the most revelatory. The films of Buster Keaton or Jean Cocteau; the short stories of Saki or Hawthorne; the poems of Stevie Smith; the German fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm: Such artless and artful constructs teach us deep volumes about the play of the unconscious within the dreamy realities of hope and fear, innocence and experience.

The enigmatic "Free to Go" by Tim Crowder is a standout in the artist's new exhibit.

"Something in the Air" by Tim Crowder is part of the artist's exhibition of new paintings, "Building a Proper Wall."

Those strange forces speak quaintly and powerfully in Tim Crowder's irresistible exhibition of new paintings at David Lusk Gallery, "Building a Proper Wall," on view through July 31.

Using oil and enamel on paper, Crowder creates a semblance of Old Master technique in the service of allegories that might be seen as cute if they didn't offer overtones whose puzzling nature sometimes verges on the sinister. Crowder also embellishes the paintings with touches of embroidery that lend an ironic homespun air to the enterprise. He sets his implied narratives of beautifully rendered cows and sheep, birds and topiary rabbits in idealized English landscapes -- fields and meadows, low stone walls, cottages -- over which great luminous cloud masses hover in displays of virtuoso painting such as Constable might envy.

It's always gratifying to see an artist at the height of his skills, and in this exhibition we observe Crowder, who has been working in Memphis for three decades, in an awe-inspiring range of detail, technical achievement and emotional daring.

Much of the background of these pieces seems to rest in the impossibility of expression, communication and understanding. In "Thoughtful & Vigilant," for example, a black and yellow bird perches on a truncated limb of a stark tree; a tiny thought-cloud hovers above its head, but any thought is undisclosed, because the cloud is blank. In the large piece, "Something in the Air," two cows in a field, one standing and one reclining -- there's a stone wall and a cottage roof beyond it -- seem to be pelted by red dots that fall from the sky. Something is indeed in the air, but the origin and substance remain mysterious.

One cow has a thought-cloud, the other a speech-bubble, but again, those provocative hints reveal nothing, because they are empty. Or are they speaking and thinking as a form of innocence that we, the human viewers, do not comprehend?

Several of the pieces are startling in their intimacy and immediacy. "Sacrifice," only 19 by 23 inches, depicts exactly what the title indicates, a sacrifice, in this case, the head of a rabbit on a plate that rests atop a stone wall. Behind this grisly scene, a vibrantly green field stretches to a sky roiling with dark clouds. The rabbit's eye is wide open and stares directly out of the picture, a device that seems to assess coldly the measure of the viewer.

At the level of accomplishment Crowder occupies now, it's unfair to single out one piece as particularly gorgeous, enigmatic and disturbing, but "Free to Go" may be such a work. It's only 22 by 30 inches, so physical impact is not that issue. A portion of one of the artist's gray stone walls has fallen, a clear invitation to wander; indeed, a yellow balloon hurried on by the wind offers another invitation. In the distance, however, dark clouds dominate the sky. A cow stands in the verge, looking back at the viewer. Should I or shouldn't I? Free to go? Don't count on it.

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Tim Crowder, "Building a Proper Wall"

David Lusk Gallery, 4540 Poplar Ave. in Laurelwood, through July 31. Call 767-3800

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