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Introduction
Nan Montgomery has painted geometries for more than fifty years. In towering rectangles that resemble ancient skyscrapers, angular intersections that read like crossroads, or the jazzy X's and O's of a child's tic-tac-toe game, she explores both observable phenomena and unseen forces that are as real as they are invisible. Often joyous, sometimes witty, Montgomery's paintings are always profound in the depth of their understanding-and translation-of physical relationships and metaphorical associations.
Montgomery arrived in Washington, DC in 1960, armed with an understanding of structure and color she learned from Josef Albers at Yale. But in the 1980s, she shifted from experimental color and form to images prompted by memories and personal associations. In Hanover, the DC area where her first studio was located, and Tregaron, a 13th century town in Wales she visited with her family in the 1970s, she identified forms with specific locations. Voyager was prompted by looking at an airport runway at night while she waited alone for her son to come home from college.
Montgomery is fundamentally a conceptual artist whose compositions address the human response to the world. She is concerned with the contemporary moment, but also with values, ideas, and subliminal associations that echo across time. |