Skip to Content

Arts Intel Report

Neil Welliver

Neil Welliver, Old Avalanche, 1982.

25 E 73rd St, New York, NY 10021

Painting plein air in Maine’s wilderness, Neil Welliver (1929–2005) was a master of the landscape. Welliver said he sought to emphasize the “fact of painting” rather than be overly realistic. To that end, he limited his palette to eight colors and focused on capturing the ephemerality of the terrain. Imagine staring into the wilderness without your glasses: Welliver captures depth, light, and atmosphere, but in a languid form that feels unreal. This show presents landscape paintings and woodcut prints, including the woodcut Birches, one of Welliver’s best-known images. —Charlie St John

Photo courtesy Alexandre Gallery, New York