Review by Glenn McNatt 11/16/2005

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At Montage Gallery

Across the street, Maxine Taylor is showing new paintings and mixed-media works at Montage Gallery.

Taylor switched from figurative to nonrepresentational abstraction a few years ago, shortly before her last Montage show, in 2003. Then, her abstractions reflected all the inspired inventiveness and zest of the newly converted.

Her current work is more consistent in quality than that of the earlier show, but it also seems somehow less urgent, albeit for interesting reasons.

Kandinsky, a pioneer of nonrepresentational art, thought the point of abstraction was communication on a higher spiritual level. "Color," he wrote, "directly influences the soul."

Yet I do not sense in Taylor's new works much growth in spiritual awareness from the last go-round. If it has occurred, it has not yet percolated into the painting, which seems somewhat mechanical and formalist, an art that is really more about other art than about life.

Of course, in the wider art world today that preoccupation with earlier artworks and artists is a very fashionable stance - and artists, after all, have to eat, too. Still, I wished these nicely crafted pieces had moved me more.

The gallery is at 925 S. Charles St. Hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Call 410-725-1125.

(Copyright 2005 @ The Baltimore Sun Company)