February 19, 1988

Marcia Gygli King

Marcia Gygli King’s landscapes have a very curious quality. Their subject matter is drawn primarily from polite, well-kept beaches and dunes in the Hamptons, where nature does not often deal in strong color and a genteel pallor is in operation for much of the year.
In Ms. King’s paintings, the scene is transformed. Color is wild and rampageous. Every canon of good taste and one or two canons of plausibility are violated. Forms are robust, though not more so than the movement of Ms. King’s strong right arm. The paint spills out onto the frames, which have a Victorian solidity and a profusion of ornament. These are paintings that double as three-dimensional constructions. “Whistlerian” is the very last word for them, though Whistler himself often comes to mind on those beaches. But as knockabout inventions they have a propulsive energy that is rather endearing.

By JOHN RUSSELL