Art Category: 1960s Exhibit

Ms. Bornstein’s figurative paintings of the 1960’s were shown at the Comara Gallery on La Cienega Blvd. in Los Angeles. California. These pieces depict a solitary figure surrounded by pictorial space that is often, at first glance monochromatic. These works relate to the Bay Area figurative school of the time, including the early work of Richard Diebenkorn and Nathan Olivera. In Bornstein’s work the figure is often a woman portrayed with painterly verve and an economy of line and brushstroke. Her exquisite draughtsman ship is deftly displayed in both the boldness and sensitivity of paint application and figurative rendering. The individual is simultaneously juxtaposed to the considerable space around her, as well as, integrated into it formally, through the layers of paint and the harmonious and somber palette. Bornstein has created an existential sense of longing prefiguring the feminist revolution that was to follow in the next decade. The paintings seem to condense, with consummate restraint and passion, a well spring of both technical mastery and emotion. Bornstein, with her economy of paint and “perfect pitch” drawing and composition, has tapped into an elemental truth of the contemporary human condition. It remains both indelible and timeless. R. Gabriel