Susan Weil
Painting

Weil exhibited several paintings, groupings of acrylic paint on crumpled paper modules and arranged on a grid system. The crumpled lower parts of the paintings were in the gray-green colors of the sea and the crumpled upper parts were in the gray-blue colors of the sky. In Two Note-books, which the artist published with dancer Sylvia Whitman, Weil discusses Wind’s Havoc, one of the paintings in her show: “Wind’s Havoc was a pivotal painting for me. I loved the regularity, the fifteen modules, violated by the crumpling. Of course the painting came from the lithographs, in which I worked out that what crumples are to the paper, folds are to the cloth. Wind’s Havoc felt to be as big a step, I guess because I loved making and violating the grid. Also I loved the way it looked. The painting was completely what I wanted it to be.”

Excerpted from Brentano, R., & Savitt, M. (1981). 112 Workshop, 112 Greene Street: History, artists & artworks. New York: New York University Press.