Maureen Gallace paints the things that are mocked as kitsch: lighthouses, fall foliage, barns, fields, sea breaks and rivers; all in a rigid, simple style. Almost a new Gramma Moses, w/o the sentimentality about naivety or age.
I know which critical tack to take with this, either compare her to Morandi, as a pure formalist who found another way to paint white squares on white squares, or compare her to other american eccentrics, like the stiff Alex Katz or the incompetent Fairfield Porter.
I cant see that though, these tiny paintings in similar colours and similar shapes, that threaten to be almost as banal as apple pie, move me deeply. I cannot process out the academia that surrounds criticism. These works make me feel warm, at a kind of platonic home where everyone is safe. She has convinced me of the virtues of simple prettiness
here is a landscape from 2000