ART REVIEW : POLES REMAIN AS THEME IN SCULPTURES BY FINE

Jud Fine is famous for using poles as sculptural form.

In response to the minimalist aesthetic of the early 1970s, he used living stalks of bamboo in a grove. They were natural forms replicating one another in a potentially infinite series. Later, he used bamboo poles altered quasi-fetishistically with pigment and other components such as metal rings and fiber wrappings. These he followed with poles fabricated from a variety of natural and manufactured materials.

A dozen poles in a variety of media are a major, and perhaps the most engaging, part of a too-crowded exhibition of Fine’s works at the Thomas Babeor Gallery in La Jolla (7470 Girard Ave.). Standing nearly 9 feet tall, each pole is segmented in imitation of bamboo. Stainless steel sections may be welded to other stainless steel sections or sections of other materials. They may also alternate with wood. The sections may be pristine, painted, carved, abraded or perforated. Most often, they are wrapped in colorful materials, including plastic, twine and widths of fabric. Some exhibit written texts. The poles evince Fine’s mastery of contrasting and complementary visual effects.

The poles also dynamically represent the force of gravity and resistance to it in a three-dimensional push-pull that activates the space they occupy. Most importantly, however, they are beautiful.

Fine has also used poles to contradict the perceived two-dimensionality of paintings. As three-dimensional lines extending into the viewer’s space, they mediate between the viewer and the part of us that, Fine has said, “thinks flat.”

“In the Round,” the major work of this type in the exhibition, emphasizes changes in perception with changes in position. A linear structure composed of stainless steel and redwood poles stands in front of the enlarged image of a carved neolithic rock found in Scotland. The sculpture viewed against the image seems to flatten out, while the image seen through the sculpture seems to become three-dimensional, an illusion that Fine calls “a reversal of dimensionality.”

The reappearance of the neolithic rock in the painting “Island Fever” evinces Fine’s playful literalism, as the weight of the rock seemingly tilts the canvas down to the right. The image of the rock remains straight, however, and lines of text in the painting remain (relatively) parallel to the floor.

This work is paired with the enigmatic “Chainsaw Fever,” which represents a destructive urge. “It’s what happens in a forest when you have your first chainsaw. You just want to cut down everything,” Fine said.

Paintings such as “Pulse,” which includes the image of a whale, “Hailey’s West,” “Flight” and “Walk” are crowded with both visual and written information.

“The idea of much of my work,” Fine has said, “is to make a really clear statement about the near-impossibility of making clear statements.”

One of the most handsome of the works exhibited is the most minimal--even barren--entitled, ironically one assumes, “Living History.” It is a tilted canvas whose corners have been marked off as triangles. A steel form frames its upper left-hand corner and a stainless steel pole diagonally crosses it. It has a presence absent in several of the other works less economical in means.

Although the individual pieces in the exhibition have their interest and beauty, overall the exhibition is a great disappointment. A prudent editing of paintings would have avoided both physical and psychological congestion.

For example, the poles alone could have held one wall visually, or a large part of it. Instead, they are jammed together. The show does not make the kind of strong statement that Fine made last summer in his memorable exhibition at Installation. This show’s grab-bag appearance does a disservice to both artist and dealer.