Denver has dozens of abstract painters of one kind or another, but only a select few have developed and sustained a truly original and distinctive vision.
Among the best known of those in the latter category is veteran artist Dale Chisman, who is featured in a handsome solo exhibition that runs just two more days at the Rule Gallery.
After completing his master of fine arts degree at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1969, Chisman, following in the footsteps of other aspiring artists, moved to New York, then the undisputed capital of the international art world.
Almost immediately, he enjoyed success. The Brooklyn Museum of Art chose him for “Six Painters” in 1972, and the respected Martha Jackson Gallery included him in group exhibitions in 1973 and 1975.
Had he chosen to remain there, he would probably be even better known nationally. But in 1984 he returned to his native Denver, and his works have been avidly sought after by area collectors since.
What sets Chisman apart from many other local painters is his ability to reinvent and reinvigorate his work with each new body of paintings, all while still maintaining a style that is quickly identifiable as his.
This latest group of 19 oils from 2007-08 could be titled “Shadows and Echoes,” because of the recurrences of the two elements.
In a number of the paintings, he has created a kind of stagelike environment, with an odd sense of three-dimensionality within Chisman’s otherwise flattened perspectives.
Framing the two sides of the upper part of “No. 2 (Red Curtain)” are two bands of red paint that can be easily interpreted as stage curtains, an impression backed by Chisman’s unusually denotative title. A horizontal line suggests the break between the front of a stage and the floor.
The most important part in terms of the imaginary title is a hooplike shape jutting down from the top of the painting. It is reflected, as though it were backlit, like a faint shadow onto the gray floor — the lower half of the painting.
Many elements of this painting are echoed — the other half of that imaginary title — in a larger and more complex work, “Puppet Show.” The composition is similarly structured, again with what can be seen as stage curtains, this time rendered in a kind of deep cobalt blue.
And again, there are shadows — another hooplike shape is mirrored, semi- shrouded, onto the white field below. Alongside is a swirl of scratchlike scribbles with its faint double reflected underneath.
This painting is also a good example of the commendably varied ways that Chisman applies paint — the drawing-like swirls, the loose applications of the tan and red, the modulated color blends in the curtainlike stripes and the drip, either a mistake allowed to remain or a deliberate bit of simultaneity.
Repeated echoes of other compositional motifs can be found in other pieces, including a fascinating, recurring conelike shape, which is seen to advantage in “Word,” and a target form, which is included in “God’s Eye,” among other selections.
During his nearly four-decade career, Chisman has produced hundreds of works, and, as this exhibition shows once again, the quality has remained dependably high.
Kyle MacMillan: 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com
Dale Chisman Art
Rule Gallery, 227 Broadway. An exhibition of 2007-08 paintings by the veteran Denver abstractionist. Through Saturday. Noon to 5 p.m. today and Saturday. Free. 303-777-9473 or .
