The work comes into the world at an undetermined hour, from a source still unknown, but it comes inevitably. . . . Discovery! The part

that is living in both animate and inanimate nature. Solace in the phenomena – the outer, the inner. Anticipation of joy. The call. To speak

of mystery in terms of mystery. -Vassily Kandinsky (August 1910)

Complex imagery and interlocking shapes, built upon a non-realistic color palette, produce in the work of Florence Putterman a

dialogue between unknowns. The circumstances that led her, more than a quarter century ago, to the petroglyphs of the pre-Columbian

indigenous Anasazi, are well known, as is her embrace of the mysteries they contained as mysteries rather than clues to be sorted and

puzzles solved. Unknowns welling back into light from forever-lost pasts, have come in her hands to speak for living mysteries as well as

dead ones. They have become the markers for what the artist – and now her audience – feels but does not speak.

That Florence Putterman has freed herself of polemic and narrative is more important than it might at first seem – how far do any of

us go in dreams, let alone daily life, without reverting to one or the other? It has required a decades-long process of self-liberation – from

the academic, from Western tradition, from the conscious itself –- to unlock her spontaneous late-blooming art for the extraordinarily potent,

fruitful and extended run we are witnessing today.

Her most recent works on canvas show compression of imagery and shape, a narrower yet more intense palette of colors, and a thinning

and blurring of the black line. Unpredictable hues, dense accretions of arrows, crosses, birds, fish, people, animals and creatures

in between –- these appear and assume their patterns and positions in obedience to orders stemming from we-know-not where. Out of chaos

and myth come a harmonious reunion of people, animals and flowers. The dialogues elicit emotion and, yes, provoke us intellectually.

Color is the governing element of Putterman’s art. For her color is the composition of a painting and underscores the meaning of

her characteristic painting surface (sand and crushed seashells). A blending of blues into reds deepens the mysterious atmosphere. The

human eyes of her animals are but one of the coincidences linking her to Chagall and her art does seem gently to extend the symbolism of

Chagall in its daring composition, color harmony and overall beauty. Yet her engagement of strong coloring adds the expressionistic folk

art overtone. From pre-history through naive primitivism to the here-and-now, she has, as a cookbook might say, “used as needed”.

As Florence Putterman’s milestone anniversary approaches, the breadth and scope of her engagement as an artist is only beginning

to be assessed. Painter, printmaker, sculptor, teacher, she has in each capacity won through to make us aware of something in ourselves.

Her work captures us quietly but surely, for – to pick one evident quality out of many – it has gaiety. Its enigmatic imagery suggests a universe

self-sufficient and self-contained. To our forefathers the physical and spiritual worlds were one and the same. Magic was everywhere

and real. Putterman is restoring this magic, leading us into dances and dialogues between unnamed mysteries.

Her writings appear in national and international journals.