John Yau reviews the exhibition Patrick Jones: Survey at Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin, Ireland, on view through July 16, 2013.

Yau writes that the show "ended up whetting my curiosity more than satisfying it, especially as it became clear to me that the exhibition was not about to offer anything near a comprehensive view of Jones’ achievement, much less his recurring interests. But perhaps curiosity rather than satisfaction is — rather perversely — the best to take leave of any artist. Nevertheless, I came away from the exhibition with what I am sure is a skewed understanding of Jones’ work. His mastery of the various process associated with Color Field and stain painting is apparent from this sampling of works, as is his command of the gesture and vocabulary we associate with the Abstract Expressionists, particularly Jackson Pollock’s drips and Adolph Gottlieb’s signs. A range of this kind would overwhelm many artists — and this certainly could be one reason why, in the face of such heavy precedents, parody and citation became the go-to modes of production. Jones, however, never became ironic. He wanted to take all this history on and find a way to make something that is his own. In that sense, he is a modernist rather than a postmodernist."