...[R]eal philosophizing begins at home, well beneath the 
official abstractions of the metaphysical tradition, in 
lived experience itselfand in its smallest details, in the body 
and its sensations, at the very sources of the word as it comes into
being.
					Fredrich Jameson - Marxism and Form

	
A recent show of paintings by Robert Birmelin at the Peter Findlay
Gallery in New York once again demonstrates the strength of this
artist's consistently compelling vision, which engages not only
painterly interests, but also broader philosophical questions.
Birmelin's paintings, while creating a strong sense of structure
and movement, also present the world as fragmentary and disjointed.
Perhaps what we find in these works is an allegory of experience built
from the small details of a lived life, from the spilled coffee, the
scattered newspaper, the back of a figure moving away from us, and a
million other small events which comprise our experience of the world.

In News a highway occupies the center ofthe composition and disappears
below the bottom edge of the canvas as though one were standing on an
overpass observing the heavy traffic below. A hand, from the position of
the observer, reaches out to touch a railing and hand and railing
dissolve where they meet. Pages from a tabloid fly in the air and are
held in mid arch so that one may peruse the headlines: "BLAST,"- "U.S.
POISED TO STRIKE IN IRAQ". The scene would not be unfamiliar to habitues
of the Long Island Expressway, nor would it be to drivers of a hundred
other expressways around the country which fill to capacity every rush
hour. Like most scenes of this type, there is no landmark which may
relieve the tedium, offer a sense of place or dignity, or even whimsy
for that matter. There is no place on roads such as these where the sun
hits squarely or the rain purifies. The traffic is so heavy there is no
place to move.  Yet, like Dickens, Birmelin's grim urban scenario is
relieved with a degree of humor, often dark humor. The urban sprawl is
peppered with throw away signs, such as the everyday silliness of a
truck proclaiming "Ultra Carpets", which takes on a darker aspect when
juxtaposed with the announcement of impending war and the prospect of
carpet bombing. The shear dreariness of the scene reads like a satirical
comment on the petty hubris of society.

There is a great variety of reading material in these paintings.
Newspapers fly about the landscapes, books are stacked on tables, there
is a journal and a rolodex, and there are signs scattered though out.
This material comprises a dense midden of cultural detritus that pauses
briefly in our hands before being blown away by the ill wind of the
city, a gust from the expressway, a blast of bus exhaust. In
Table-Cityscape-Yellow, an angled table contains scattered newspapers,  
a book, crumpled paper, a paper coffee cup spilling coffee.The 
table seems to teeter on its base; items are falling off and away. The
cityscape above the table is upside-down from our vantage. The back edge
of the table bleeds into the cityscape; boundaries are intentionally
blurred. Here as in the companion piece Table-Cityscape-Telephone, scale
is juxtaposed sometimes to humorous effect for buildings become
still-life objects and still-life objects become buildings. How would a
telephone work as architecture? The table that teeters on its edge
becomes an analogy for other impending disasters - a feeling that
something terrible is on the verge of happening - a threat of
environmental disaster, perhaps, or some other aspect of a world out of
balance.

It does not matter if the point of view is outside or inside in these
scenes, indeed, there often is not a clear distinction between the two.
The drama is the same - the air is pervaded with a sense of longing, of
free floating anxiety and global ennui. In attempting to bring the
disparate elements of his world together in some sort of order, Birmelin
attempts to resolve and to unify like a philosopher, for in the final
analysis, his paintings are indeed philosophical. There are other works
equally compelling in this show which serve to expand on these themes as
well as others. Birmelin is a painter who does not shy away from
engaging with the world, and once again, he proves the continued
expressive power of painting.

Douglas Anderson