Keith Kattner’s “Entropy”
According to one definition in an online dictionary, Entropy means “lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder.” Keith Kattner’s “Entropy” asks, in many artful ways, questions of balance and order, the very principles that make a painting beautiful in the first place. Keith Kattner is a retired neurosurgeon, and he bring the skills honed in that field to his extraordinary grouping of works.
Since retiring from neurosurgery the artist splits his time between the Hudson Valley, the Midwest and the Canadian wilds. All of these regions have their influence on Kattner’s work. The subdued but masterful Silhouettes of the Platte Valley River (2017), for example, is infused with the Midwest -- Missouri to be exact -- and an underlying symmetry that calms the mind. In fact much of the exhibition, the works from 2017:The Four Seasons series, The Classical Studies series, are symmetrically balanced in an equally weighted but sophisticated manner. Reflection Six -- and even the title suggests great symmetrical balance -- evens both hemispheres of the canvas by reflecting a group of twelve (the Disciples?) into a pool of water.
It is in Keith Kattner’s most recent work that we see Entropy taking place, deliberately disrupting the delicate balance achieved in the earlier paintings. Unititled I and II -- and the unnamedness here suggests entropy -- give us configurations of workers creating cities (Midwestern?) that confine Nature, once prevalent in the earlier works, to the periphery. Nature moving over the course of the works from foreground to periphery is an excellent metaphor for “Entropy.” Curated by the able Debbie Dickinson, “Entropy” is an extraordinary show that raises all sorts of thoughtful questions about Nature, Civilization, Order, Disorder, Beauty and even Perception itself.
“It took me a considerable amount of effort to realize that the rules of art don’t always comply with the rules of science,”Kattner says. “I had to decide which set of rules would supersede the other.”
Entropy will be up today for public viewing from 11 am to 6 pm. I highly recommend stopping by.