AT THE GALLERIES:Power in primitivism, but energy is wasted

Primitivism in painting (and its close relative fauvism) was poorly received when it first appeared in the work of artists like Paul Gauguin, but it left a lasting mark on art.

It was difficult for viewers to understand. Hundreds of years of development toward an increasingly realistic human figure did a u-turn in just a few years, turning into something that stressed color over form, simple over complex compositions and heavy brushwork over the more delicate (or even invisible).

Modern sensibilities have continued to approve of these ideas, the sort of painting done by Henri Matisse in the last century. There’s something about the vividness of the color paired with a stripped-down sensibility that still appeals to us.

You can see this in action at Katharine Story (226 Ocean Ave.). Katharine Story is a clothing boutique/art gallery that is currently featuring the work in oil and mixed media of the designer’s husband, Robert Story.

The strongest canvas is “Untitled #4” (36x36, oil on canvas). It features a group of men variously dressed in costumes of male power: a military uniform, suits and ties, a skinhead. They appear around a table, gorging themselves, sharing a bloody meal piled in front of them.

The colors here are vicious and intense. The figures seem to be competing for who can consume more: forks are flying, and there is two-handed eating going on.

It’s a disturbing metaphor for the relationship between greed and violence. The canvas is full, shocking. There is movement here. It may be flat — meaning the figures share the same space as the ground — but it is not lifeless.

In the upper left corner, two figures shove a cow through a doorway. In the upper right, a waiter emerges with a roasted fowl on a plate, more for those that already have too much. The point is well taken: this is an endless cycle of excess.

Also interesting is “I Hear Their Gentle Voices Calling” (36x36, oil on canvas). A single male figure (looking vaguely like a young Abraham Lincoln) sits on the edge of a four-poster bed. His chin rests in his hand. The perspective is skewed, aimed up from below distorting the figure in an interesting way. Story uses strong black outlines that look like oil crayons, adding to its primitive appeal. He seems lonely and thoughtful.

But the figure in the background reveals what happens when the execution of simple techniques show too much restraint. So flat and simplified is she, that she seems almost a mistake in the composition, with no features, cartoonish hair and geometric skirt and shirt. She seems pointless.

Story can also stumble in the use of heavy outlining. “Mixed Blessings” (48x48) features a central figure, the Virgin Mary, hovering over a seething mass of seals. But she is so heavily outlined that her crudeness and flatness seem to come more from a lack of expertise in painting the human figure then from a desire to express something about her symbolism. The same is true for the seals below: they lack force and life, and therefore seem pointless.

Uneven gloss on the surface of “Mixed Blessings” also adds to its amateurish look, making the painting appear unfinished. There is a difference between energetic brushwork and something careless.

In order to carry off the exaggerated colors and shapes of such an approach, the painter has to walk a fine line between simple and simplistic. Story sometimes does both in the same canvas.

This is a shame, because the idea of the painting, with its butter yellow sky and zooming bi-planes in the background, is just bizarre enough to be intriguing. But the execution is so distracting, you don’t really have time to explore its visual suggestions.

“Leapfrog” (36x36) is another example of this. In it, a figure looking a lot like Mark Twain plays the game of the title with a figure looking a lot like Kurt Vonnegut — in a library. This is puzzling, but witty, and I’m willing to go with it. But the execution of the Vonnegut figure’s hands (the test of any figure painter’s skill) is so poor as to totally distract from the meaning.

Story also has a series of small (12x12) mixed media portraits in the show, mostly focused on serial killers such as John Wayne Gayce and Peter Sutcliffe. Some are more interesting than others, but all feature the same hallmarks: flat head shots with heavy outlining and uncomplicated color mixing.

The overall impression is an energy at the very limit of its skill, an intelligence pushing itself to its edge. This makes the show worth seeing, but in the end, disappointing.