William Eckhardt Kohler: Through and Through and Through at Helm Contemporary

William Eckhardt Kohler, In The Stone (2024), 36 x 24 inches (all images courtesy of the artist)

By D. DOMINICK LOMBARDI July 16, 2024

The ancient Etruscans believed their souls lived forever after death, inhabiting the dwellings and avenues of their stone constructed, town-like cemeteries. In the summer of 2022, William Eckhardt Kohler spent 3 sundrenched 90+ degree weeks in the Etruscan necropoli near Rome making on site drawings and watercolors, with his primary focus on the framing archways or portals in the tombs as they best represent, metaphorically speaking, the passage from one world to another.

From those preliminary works on paper, Kohler created a series of paintings in the following two years that capture the remains of an extraordinary culture typified by the architecture, sculpture and painting of the time. While at work capturing important details, Kohler could not help but notice the overwhelming belief in the afterlife that permeates this ancient age.

In The Stone (2024) is a primary example of how the cemetery buildings were conceived and sighted, as if to give the inhabiting spirit a bucolic view of nature from beneath a cooling stone roof. The rhythm of the rocks, hills, trees, outcroppings and clouds Kohler paints brings a neverending harmony to this peaceful place, which on this particular day is inhabited by a live nesting bird in the lower right giving a subtle contrast to the spiritual aspects of the scene. Kohler’s crisp palette, which achieves an even higher level of serenity, chases away any doubt that the timeless beauty of the ruins is the reward of a life lived well, despite what anyone else thinks about your behavior.

William Eckhardt Kohler, In The House Below (2023), 24 x 18 inches

Changing directions a bit, In The House Below (2023) we see a carefully constructed combination of multidimensional space that oscillates between near and far in both subtle and profound ways. On the left and right side of the composition, Kohler jostles the space with vertical bands of changing visual notations that splits a tree in half at the top right. Here, the archway’s shifting abstracted forms are simultaneously seen and unseen like a mirage. Then there is the partial clay pot with a painted face, a subliminal reference to the overall composition which softly suggests the form of an etruscan water or wine vessel. In this multilevel narrative, Kohler reveals his ever lively thought process that is constantly being filled with visual stimuli that is both edited to perfection, and open-ended enough to elicit expansion in experience and thought.

William Eckhardt Kohler, One Awakens (2024), 24 x 20 inches

One Awakens (2024) combines the previous two approaches regarding the multidimensional and the spiritual, forming a montage of moments that may remind some of partial snippets from a time lapse video. High up in the midground a bird contemplates its options, while in the near ground a young woman meditates. One Awakens captures the shapes, the colors, the light and the transitions in time reminding us to slow down, be present and take it all in. It is also important to note that this painting maintains the portal effect to a degree, with the focus moving more toward the surrounding landscape.

William Eckhardt Kohler, Uttered by Water (2023), 60 x 48 inches

In Uttered by Water (2023) we get a glimpse of the chill ecosystem of a wooded pond. Kohler achieves that feeling of coolness by bordering the picture plane above and below with deeper, darker, weightier hues – an actuality one would experience when near a stream or pond where fully foliated trees block most of the sunlight. And like this experience, the artist focuses our attention on the light, most notably where it strikes the water’s edge. There is still the element of “framing the scene” here, however the vertical passages that previously drew our attention gives way to the highlighted earth, and the one curious detail In the reflection of the birch tree on the right – the hint of a figure, a fairy perhaps, and a nod to Richard Dadd.

William Eckhardt Kohler, Through and Through and Through (2023), 24 x 80 inches

The panoramic Through and Through and Through (2023) is an inside-outside transition in space, detailed in antiquity and populated with figures working their way through the overarching spaces and includes two small passageways. Through and Through and Through, for the time Kohler was in Italy, represents his self-contained and self-sustaining world. The overall composition is a fluid loop from the green, snake-like form along the lower half to the arching rainbow in the sky creating an endless loop of all of the artist’s needs and desires.

William Eckhardt Kohler, In The Courtyard (2023)

In The Courtyard (2023) is the most distilled painting in the exhibition. Stuck somewhere between here and beyond, In the Courtyard is more of a mood than a memory, however both play a role here. If not for the darker color passages near the bottom that anchor the forms or statuary, the entire scene would float away. This sense of otherworldliness is a common thread throughout this exhibition, as the spiritual aspects match moment to moment with the ‘reality’ experienced. Overall, Kohler’s creations have a common and compelling current day link with such artists as Charles Burchfield and Joseph Stella, who also found a profound spiritual side in all forms, natural and constructed.

Through and Through and Through runs till July 27th at Helm Contemporary in New York City. WM