Bascha Mon Solo Show

Writing by Alexandra Rutsch Brock

“Creativity takes courage.”
— Henri Matisse

Forty-seven years after her last exhibition in New York, Bascha Mon is returning with a celebratory retrospective at the Tappeto Volante Gallery in Brooklyn, NY.

Bascha Mon is a traveler in both life and art. Despite her self-described anxieties, her artwork vividly displays bravery through strong, confident colors and brushwork. This exhibition will showcase her large-scale paintings and works on paper from 1968 to 2024, reflecting her enduring passion for color and its myriad expressions. Inspired by music and memory, Mon’s art evokes floating perspectives and delves into the depths of her imagination, channeling her emotions directly into her paintbrush and out into the world.

Born on November 3, 1932, in Newark, NJ, Bascha’s early years were defined by a deep passion for the French language and literature. At just sixteen, she began studying French and Spanish literature at Skidmore College, where her admiration for Proust culminated in a thesis written in French. This academic focus also sparked a deep connection with the composer Olivier Messiaen, whose work would later be instrumental in her creative development.

Her academic path took an unexpected turn when she eloped at eighteen, cancelling her planned studies at the Sorbonne in Paris. Soon after, she welcomed her first son, and the demands of motherhood reshaped her aspirations. Despite this shift in her trajectory, Bascha’s early immersion in language, literature, and music continued to profoundly influence her artistic journey.

Balancing the roles of a young mother, she spent five years teaching elementary school, finding it intellectually stimulating yet ultimately unsustainable given her evolving personal and professional aspirations. A decade later, after the birth of her second son, she realized that teaching was not the lifelong path she envisioned.

Her passion for art was ignited by an educator friend who introduced her to Monet’s Venice paintings. Encouraged to replicate one, she experienced a profound creative awakening, stating, “I felt reborn. I really love color.” At the age of 31, she made the pivotal decision to pursue a life as an artist, marking a significant turning point in her life.

Balancing family life with artistic ambitions in the 1960s was challenging. Determined to pursue her passion, she began by taking local classes with Adolf Konrad, who taught her the art of perception. Konrad emphasized that “a good artist could stand in one spot, study everything in that space, and out of that could make art.” This foundational lesson helped her refine her artistic vision. A few years later, she took the bold step of commuting to New York City to study at the Art Students League. There, Marshall Glasier played a pivotal role in helping her overcome her anxiety about drawing. He encouraged her to take risks and draw from her heart, a transformative experience that gave her confidence in her own artistic voice. Financial constraints meant that she often collected discarded newspapers from her train rides to use as drawing pads, showcasing her resourcefulness and dedication.

Before her time in NYC, Bascha had primarily been exposed to the works of classic artists like Kandinsky, Schiele, and Vlaminck. Her exposure to Chinese and Japanese art in the city opened up new creative avenues for her, significantly broadening her understanding of contemporary art. Another influential figure in her artistic journey was Rudolf Baranik, who referred to her as his “peer” and encouraged her with the mantra, “Don’t be easily satisfied.” This advice became a cornerstone of her approach to art and teaching, which she imparted to her own students over twenty years, continuing her role as an educator.

Within her large-scale works on panels from the 1970s, Bascha shares her memories and deep connections to significant places and moments in her life, blending abstract feelings and actual memory. These inscapes depict the imagined interior of her parents' notions store in Newark and the vivid recollection of her mother’s green, vermillion and black lined scarf. The feeling of the lush foliage and pond outside her Long Valley home, alongside the dynamic relationships within her family.

“A Shopper’s Guide to Prince Street,” 1979, demonstrates her techniques of layering the oil paints onto the stiff surface of Homasote through scumbling, various line works, stippling, and even some collage.  All these encrusted textures create a feeling of energy or even a powerful aura akin to Aboriginal landscapes and their depictions of ancestral paths and sacred sites. Delicate gradations of color mimic the natural play of light inside the illusory store. Invented marks to represent lace and trimmings on shelves are layered delicately, achieving an almost hypnotic effect.

“Reverberations” from 1977, inspired by the view from the front window of her new house as a young mother, echoes Rothko’s softly blurred horizontal stripes. Mon’s use of variegated muted tones of greens and blues, speckled lavenders and warm whites conveys her reactions to the changing colors in the landscape around her, contrasting with the urban environment of her upbringing.

Hints of pink and orange enhance the sense of drifting, inviting viewers to experience her compositions like a hang glider navigating the wind over the terrain below. These works evoke emotional memories and share their soulful stories with viewers.

Despite her extensive study and formal training, Bascha considers herself largely self-taught. Lacking a robust art community in her local area, she relied heavily on her own initiative to develop her skills and knowledge.

A pivotal moment in her career came in 1991, when she won a prize at the Osaka Triennale for a print. This accolade included an invitation to travel to Japan, an experience that profoundly impacted her artistic direction. The following year, she visited China, and these exposures to diverse cultures and artistic practices inspired her to explore sculpture and large-scale installations. However, an accident compelled her to abandon these more cumbersome media. Undeterred, Bascha embraced the challenge of working with encaustics before eventually returning to oils on stretched canvases in the 2000s, continuing to evolve her artistic approach.

In the early years of Facebook, Mon expanded her artistic community by engaging with contemporary artists worldwide. Gallerist John Cheim noted, “You are able to process the world and look at things in a way that many are oblivious to.” Bascha maintains a childlike imagination, which she considers crucial. Works such as “Searching for Joy – Lemon Glow” and “Tangerine – A Song for Aunt Riva’s Uncomfy Couch” feature bold colors interacting with smaller, layered elements on and around the canvas. The dynamic interplay of scale and the vibrant shifts in color and shape create a visual dialogue, evoking complex family relationships through a child’s perspective, yet infused with reflective adult memory. The title "Tangerine" was inspired by the 1941 song by Victor Schertzinger and Johnny Mercer, which Mon sang while sitting at the piano, recalling the uncomfortable chairs. The painting reflects her love of bold color, song, and memories of family dinners.

In January of this year, Mon was hospitalized for two months. Now approaching 92, she remains determined and continues to paint with three of her most recent gouache works featured in this exhibition. “EXPLORATION”, “SAD YET HOPEFUL! UNITE!” and “WHEN CONSCIOUS MIND IS IN A JUMBLE, WHAT IS UNCONSCIOUS SAYING?” These new pieces mark a shift to larger paper and vertical formats, reflecting her ongoing challenge to push artistic boundaries with new approaches.

Created in single sessions lasting 3-6 hours, these moments are spontaneous, guided by the music of French composer Olivier Messiaen. The mysterious symbolism and unusual dichotomy within the music create an atmosphere for Mon to enter a creative state, allowing her to lose herself in the unconscious wanderings of painting.

At first glance, the vibrant reds and yellows, electric cobalt blues, and brilliant greens in these works create dynamic, flowing compositions. Upon closer inspection, one notices scratches through the paint with the back of her brush, various calligraphic marks and bold, smaller repetitive lines suspended over the fluid washes.  These details invite viewers to traverse the surface, placing the viewer seemingly floating above it—usually from a considerable distance— experiencing a journey through her mind’s landscape.

An early oil on canvas from 1968-1969, “And They Shall Gather from The Corners of The Earth” highlights Mon’s initial exploration of bold colors and sweeping strokes with complementary color combinations. Though it’s inscribed on the reverse as being inspired by Kandinsky, the work also evokes Jane Frank’s sense of aerial movement.  Abstract elements gradually reveal a landscape and a sense of horizon line appears. One glimpses houses with pink roofs, lines become fences and roads and sensations of traveling wind are all conveyed through energetic brushwork.

Looking forward at her most recent three works on paper we see colors pop and glow and vibrate across the room. Mon paints with intuition, inspired by global events and personal experiences. These new, vigorous works reflect her boldness and optimism, resonating with Henri Matisse’s belief in finding beauty and joy even in difficult times: “To find joy in the sky, the trees, the flowers. There are always flowers for those who want to see them.”

Through her vulnerability and strength, fears and bravery, sensibility and imagination, Mon’s work continues to reflect her early daring spirit. Her love of color and freeing feeling of atmospheric perspective has been here all along – taking us on her life’s journey - flying through the world with her evocative work.

—— Alexandra Rutsch Brock