Judy Glantzman Untitled 2004 oil on canvas 90" x 80" [installation view]
[detail]
We've lived with two drawings by Judy Glantzman for years, one of them quite small. We've also seen her small paintings over even a longer period, but until now I don't think we've seen anything as monumental as the large canvases included in her current show at Betty Cunningham.
The madly-re-worked facial and body gestures work on every scale, but they're definitely not the same on every scale. Scary wonderful is much easier to hold onto when there's only one figure to contemplate. These ghostly crowds are of a different order altogether. They are as beautiful as the best renaisance altarpieces, and they may oddly serve a similar purpose in spite of their profaneness.
Judy Glantzman Untitled 1996 Super Sculpey 6.25" x 8" x 10" [installation view]
And then there are the sculptures, which almost no one has seen until now. Perhaps its only because of their full dimensional form, but these pieces speak to something perhaps even more elemental than whatever it is that is claimed by the paintings and drawings.