Karen Wilkin reviews Graham Nickson: Light and Geometry at Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York, on view through December 22, 2018.

Wilkin writes: “The canvases and watercolors [Nickson] has produced over the years — of flamboyant sunrises and feverish sunsets — address themes that most committed modernists would either scorn or find too frightening to tackle. Yet Nickson turns these loaded, time-honored motifs into compelling, wholly contemporary images that toggle between unabashed romanticism and a modern celebration of the expressive power of super-saturated color relationships and abstract structure, with a healthy admixture of awareness of the history of western art.”