Mavis Pusey American, 1928-2019
sheet: 23 1/2 x 15 1/4"
In the mid-late 1960s, Mavis Pusey moved from New York to London to work with the prominent Swedish printmaker and modern artist, Birgit Skiöld. While in Paris for one year, she had her first solo exhibition of large geometric abstract paintings at Galerie Louis Soulanges. Pusey moved back to New York in 1969 to further develop her painting and printmaking practice. She soon began working with Robert Blackburn at his well-established printmaking workshop for the next three years. Mavis' decision to return to New York proved to be a just one when The Museum of Modern Art purchased a print from her in 1969, and the Whitney Museum of American Art featured her painting Dejygea (1970) in its 1971 exhibition, Black Artists in America. In 1972 she received a grant from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation and participated in numerous group exhibitions. During the 1970s and 1980s, Pusey also was active as an instructor, teaching at several institutions, including Rutgers University, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and The New School for Social Research.
Airport (c. 1970) is an incredibly beautiful etching with elements of screen-printed colors. The geometric, hard-edged abstraction she is known for creates an aerial-illusion of an airplane landing as viewed from the cockpit. Planes of space and carved out sections of geometry move forward while others recede; the blinking red and yellow lights illuminate the runways' location keeping the pilot on course. Many of Pusey's compositions deal with the construction and demolition of buildings seen from ground level. She has described her work as consisting "of geometrical forms in a variety of geometrical configurations. These forms are based on buildings around the Manhattan area. I am inspired by the energy and the beat of the construction and demolition of these buildings -- the tempo and movement mold into a synthesis and, for me, become another aesthetic of abstraction."
The birds-eye view of Aiport is part of what makes it so exquisite.