Painting Indepth: Twrkv's "P73 Series"
Jack Tworkov with "P73 #3" (in progress), Provincetown, MA, 1973. Photo: Arnold Newman / Getty Images.
“P73 Series” by Jack Tworkov
By Jason Andrew
In 1973, Jack Tworkov completed thirteen major canvases—four of which stretch over ten feet wide. These paintings are the culmination of Tworkov's pursuit, which began in 1965, to ally geometric structure and the gestural mark.
As evident in several works completed in Provincetown in the fourth quarter of 1972 and just prior to his artist residency at the Rome Academy, Tworkov had arrived at a compositional system that embraced his developing desire to bring a programmatic system to his art.
Installation view “A Little Touch of Grace,” Van Doren Waxter, September 18–November 8, 2024. (L to R): Jack Tworkov, "P73 #4," 1973, oil on canvas, 96 x 68 in (243.8 x 172.7 cm) and Jack Tworkov "Q4-72 #1," 1972, oil on canvas, 96 x 68 in (243.8 x 172.7 cm)
“What is the relation of reason to feeling?” Tworkov questioned, “Reason chooses the ground where the play of feeling is set free. Reason simply says this ground, not that. Not everywhere, but here. It does not so much limit as it contains." (1)
In these paintings we see the artist, now in his early 70s, responding to this questioning. Unlike any other compositions to date, Tworkov structures a hierarchy where in the top three-quarters of each painting Tworkov “reasons” a system wherein the marks follow a specific program. Conversely, in the lower quadrant, we experience a field of free gesture.
“What I wanted was a simple structure dependent on drawing as a base on which the brushing, spontaneous and pulsating, gave a beat to the painting somewhat analogous to the beat in music. I wanted and I hope I arrived at a painting style in which planning does not exclude intuitive play.” – Jack Tworkov (2)
Minimalism and conceptual art were two movements that dominated artistic development during the 1960s and 1970s. Though a celebrated First-Generation Abstract Expressionist, Tworkov, was a painter who never negated the influence of new approaches to art. He believed that all art is a reflection of the time it was made and Tworkov responded to concepts of his time. Through their monochromatic purity and structural improvisations, these works align with many of the ideas shared by artists whom he knew personally such as Jennifer Bartlett, Sol LeWitt, Robert Morris, and Anne Truitt.
Paintings from Tworkov’s “P73 Series” are in the collections of the Des Moines Art Center (“P73 #2”), The Philadelphia Museum of Art (“P73 #3”), Collection Chase Manhattan Bank (“P73 #11”) as well as three private collections.
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(1) Jack Tworkov. "Notes on my Painting," Art in America, September/October 1973, p. 66.
(2) Artist Statement. Jaffe-Friede Gallery, February 1973.