Practice makes perfection

Painter Max Gimblett is the subject of a lengthy article in premiere US art magazine, Art in America. Gimblett’s latest works were recently shown at the Haines Gallery in San Francisco. Critic Thomas McEvilley describes the exhibition as capstone or summation of an impressive 40 year career. “That there might be an overlap of meaning and intention between the New York School tradition and the Rinzai tradition of Zen painting has been remarked on before, but there has perhaps not been as perfect an avatar of the intersection as Gimblett … Like a traditional Zen painter, he will repeat a basic brush stroke over and over to arrive, through practice, at perfection through true spontaneity.” Gimblett has been based in New York since 1972, where he worked closely with kinetic artist (and fellow Kiwi) Len Lye, until the latter’s death in 1980.