Albert York. Matthew Marks Gallery

If you've never seen any paintings by Albert York or if you’ve never heard of him, now is your chance to see a beautiful array of 37 of his small and intimate landscapes, flowers and animals that cover his career from the early sixties to the mid 90's. At first you might think that these are the works of a 19th century itinerant painter traveling the countryside doing small paintings on bits of wood of farmer’s cows and soft spring night landscapes. York who was seldom seen or heard from spent most of his life in quiet reclusive time on Long Island painting when he had the chance and doing odd jobs to support himself and his family.
These paintings are small bullets to the heart, measuring mere inches but are so alluring and tender that the size of them become a moot point. There’s a lot to admire in these marvelous paintings including his patches and areas of color both subtle and sometimes bright and his use of figures in his landscapes, sometimes creepy and perhaps allegorical as in the painting of a nude young woman on her knees in a pastoral landscape as death or old age in the form of a skeleton looks on. Another one of my favorites (actually all of the paintings are my favorites) is of two young women at rest on a nice green patch of ground; one appears to be napping while the other woman watches over her. This show is a blessing and easily one of the best exhibitions of 2014.