Abstract and Original

Written By: Aline B. Louchheim

Violently in contrast at the same gallery are the “compositions in plastic” by Zahara Shatz. Miss Shatz is one of the most gifted and least “tricky” of the sculptors exploring this new and challenging material, and one feels that shehas respect for and comprehension of its special properties. Even in her three-dimensional pieces, she has not tortured the I material into untoward shapes, but worked with a logic of form in terms of space, light and movement (for the latter quality is transferred) as the spectator moves and sees, through the material, intricately changing relationships. There also are what might be called “layer-paintings,” where sheets of plastic are kept in planar relation and bits of copper screen and other metallic substances seem embedded within them. Here Miss Shatz’ taste and sensibility come to the fore. Although some of these patiently worked designs seem merely to translate Miro and Klee into moonlit space, most of them are personal and interesting.

Abstract and Original

It is still possible to be abstract and original both, Zahara Schatz's things at the Pinacotheca Gallery proves. They're lyrical improvisations wrought of a transparent glass-like plastic into which Miss Schatz somehow imbedded bits of copper wire, a fragment of silk, a speck of gold paper; The effect is most charming, with each piece revealing her taste, imagination, and an indefinable quality of poetry and grace.