ArtNews
November 11, 1979
BOSTON: SHEDDING ITS INFERIORITY COMPLEX
Abstract painters, humble realists, minimal-conceptual sculptors, watercolorists and mavericks coexist in Boston as the city gains confidence in its artisitic identity
By Pamela Allara
“Catherine Bertulli's watercolors also contain wit as well as pungent observation. Her work has a strong narrative element, but the strange spatial perspectives and dissonant patterning mitigate against the illustrational aspects. In
Dudley Bus (1979), space splays out from the center, suggesting the rocking motion of the bus. The syncopated spatial rhythms are continued in the variety of patterns, most vividly in the shirt of the jazz musician. The Cafe scenes of Charles Demeth executed in Greenwich Village after World War 1 are brought to mind by both the figure drawing and biting wit (the washing instructions stick out of the female passenger's blouse!"