Martin Mugar blogs about David Row: Four Decades of Painting at Loretta Howard Gallery, New York, on view through April 2, 2016.

Mugar writes: "The introduction of the curvilinear into [Row's] work appears to be lifted from the late paintings of de Kooning. To achieve an understanding of the Abstract Expressionist De Kooning, a notion of real physical gesture, which creates time and space, is crucial. Interestingly, Row reduces this to a semiotic sign. Granted they are hand painted but he domesticates the heroism of de Kooning into a sign that is often contrasted with another sign such as the stable grid pattern in 'Point of View.' However, when you realize that those swirling patterns are represented as a kind of irreducible sign of movement, like the convoluted twists and turns of Chinese dragon painting, then, Row’s life work becomes clearer and very interesting. He is really involved in the language of painting or better yet painting as language."