At the time I reviewed the work of Don Voisine in 2013, he was a veteran painter of geometric abstractions who worked with a sharp compositional vocabulary and format centered on black form (rectangles, triangles, parallelograms and trapezoids) . Looking back on his work, I learned that in 1992 he began to surround the black form with a border. In 1999 he introduced the diagonal into his work, adding another layer of tension between confinement and expansion. Since then, he has expanded these possibilities while remaining devoted to his use of a single or double layered black form, hemmed by parallel rectangles pressed from the sides of the painting or the top and bottom.

Voisine’s paintings were precisely delineated compositions where everything was taken into account, from the use of matte and glossy paint to the direction of the brushstroke, the solidity or transparency of the superimposed planes, the interaction between black forms and the white spaces, and the relationship between the black and white interior and the colors and stripes that stand out. Perhaps because of his concern for composition and the particular elements of his work, and despite all the constraints he imposes, what distinguishes Voisine from other geometric abstract artists is that he remains a restless painter, able to surprise his most ardent fans. That’s why I saw the exhibition Don Neighbor at McKenzie Fine Art.

According to art critic Walter Pater, “all art constantly aspires to the condition of music”. If there was an underlying musical principle that ran through Voisine’s work before this groundbreaking exhibition, it would have to do with balance, harmony and counterpoint. He had always exerted different kinds of pressure between adjacent and overlapping forms and shifts in the materiality of the paint – what I called “a tightly calibrated harmony of friction” in my 2019 review. Although Voisine did not abandon this way of composing with the 17 paintings in his current exhibition, he twisted his work in unexpected ways and did things he had never done before. An artist who constantly brought incremental changes to his work, the most recent paintings mark the start of a new and different trajectory for him.

In eight of the paintings, Voisine incorporated diamond shapes, in which he nested one or more small diamonds within larger ones. Because the larger ones are cropped by the sides of the painting, emphasizing the two-dimensional surface, the smaller encrusted diamonds perceptually switch between pressing against the surface and tilting back in an indeterminate space. This discrepancy between flatness and form allows our eye to move through the painting, to sense a space that eventually hugs the surface, pushing us outward. This optical tension responds to one of the challenges of painting: how can a painting be an autonomous object if a spectator is needed to complete it? Another new element in the works is an irregular cruciform. Diamond and cruciform shapes achieve different things.

“Coffer” (2023) incorporates a saturated purple that I don’t think I’ve seen before in Voisine’s work. His use of asymmetrical elements is novel, and he reframes the contained forms in new ways. I don’t know where all these changes will lead, but the work is clearly not transient. Geometric abstractionists are not known for making sweeping changes to their art: Kenneth Noland had a few formats he returned to throughout his career, while Stanley Whitney established a signature grid in four pre-established sizes, which he delineates with loosely painted rectangles. color. Both rely on safety nets. Voisine broke with the formalistic ban on composition early in his career and he never stopped pushing. Her recurring use of black is powerful because she rejects the seduction of color. His use of directional brush marks and solid, transparent planes invites close visual examination. In our mind, we can assemble and disassemble nested, overlapping and pressed shapes. Looking is a committed activity, a continuous shift in focus.

The most surprising work in the exhibition is “Odalisque” (2023), a horizontal painting containing a double black diamond nestled in a thick gray border. Are we supposed to read the black diamond as a geometric evocation of an odalisque? A smaller gray diamond is set in the center. Blue paint has been rubbed over its surface, leaving a faint streak, like blue eye shadow that hasn’t been completely erased. The eroticism is unexpected, as is the challenge of reading this piece.

Voisine alludes to and echoes artists ranging from Kazimir Malevich and Myron Stout to little-known European geometric abstractionists. He slowly and resolutely rejected the reductive tendency and forms as containers of color often associated with geometric abstraction. Instead, he went the other way, with unmistakable independence and thoughtfulness.

Don Neighbor continues at McKenzie Fine Art (55 Orchard Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan) through June 25. The exhibition was organized by the gallery.