Joe Goode

: (b Oklahoma City, OK, 1937).

American painter and sculptor. He studied at Chouinard Art Institute, CA (1959-61). He was initially influenced by the Abstract Expressionism of Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, but Robert Irwin's teaching quickly led him towards Pop art and phenomenology. One Year Old (1961; see 1997 exh. cat., p. 8) is typical of his early work: the canvas is entirely covered in a monochromatic surface of varying impasto but for a small section in the shape of a milk bottle; the milk bottle itself stands in front of the canvas, covered in a thick layer of the same brown hue. This series set Goode's dead-pan tone and his blend of abstraction and everyday life. Similar concerns with different planes of reference were pursued in the Torn Cloud series of the early 1970s: canvases depicting skyscrapers torn away to reveal clouds painted in varying ways. His interest in the status of pictures as objects continued in the 1980s: Must See to Appreciate (1980; see 1997 exh. cat., p. 21), painted half in white, half in red, with layers of underpainting, is riddled with holes blown by shot-gun pellets. The 1980s also saw Goode draw inspiration from the natural world; he began to move towards more literal depictions whilst still investigating the nature of sensory awareness and different perceptual states. Forest Fire No.74 (1985; see 1997 exh. cat., pp. 24-5), exploring the visual effects created by a large fire, is typical of the long canvases depicting violent natural forces that he produced at this time. (Source: MORGAN FALCONER, "Joe Goode," The Grove Dictionary of Art Online (Oxford University Press, Accessed June 16, 2004) )