Apocalyptic Landscape: Walter A. Prochownik

Walter A. Prochownik’s most recent paintings and drawings, dating from 1987 to 1989 are the logical outgrowth of his recurrent interest in landscape as subject in tune with his well-developed formal concerns with light, color, composition, and abstraction. Apocalyptic Landscape shows for the first time his three-dimensional acrylic on wood paintings that represent his concerns about the environment. They take a contemporary, non-objective approach to acknowledge 19th-century roots in American landscape painting inspired by the transcendentalism of Emerson, Thoreau, and others. For Prochownik, the divine presence in nature at the heart of pantheism is expressed in a new form of luminism. Pure, phosphorescent light radiates from ruptured, heavily encrusted, polluted planes. His jarring contrasts protrude from the wall to engage viewers. Even his works on paper offer dynamic impressions impeccably rendered in non-rectilinear form.

The artist dedicated the exhibition and catalogue to Edward L. Prochownik and Seymour Drumlevitch. Nancy Weekly, then the Center’s Charles Cary Rumsey Curator, curated the exhibition and contributed the catalogue essay. Apocalyptic Landscape/Walter A. Prochownik was sponsored by Phillips, Lytle, Hitchcock, Blaine & Huber Attorneys with additional support from the City of Buffalo, County of Erie, and individual donors.