In the new millennium, Louisa Chase continued to explore the duality of order and chaos through a fever pitch of pure color, geometric shapes and energetic lines. Inspired by artist Phillip Guston, Chase returned to more representational subjects such as still life, landscapes, and elements found in nature. Distilled into a swarm of raw gestural marks, her work captured the pure energy and essence of the subject with intensity and abstract-expressionist fervor. With an almost scientific approach to color relationships, she made her own oil sticks to achieve the colors she wanted and then applied layers of bold marks with ferocity to transmit her emotions to canvas.

Often compared to abstract expressionist masters Jackson Pollock and Cy Twombly, Chase adopted a language of “scribbles” and a sense of color that ran broad and deep within her compositions. Suspended in an animated state, her swirling mass of lines and color captured the presence and energy of swarming bees, brewing storms
and fluttering butterflies. Her dizzying tangle of interwoven marks drawn in pure color evoked the presence of a “swarm” to the extent that one could almost hear the paintings “buzz.” This new body of work was unveiled in Louisa Chase: New Paintings at The Contemporary Museum
in Baltimore in 2003.

Coming full circle, Chase reintroduced the geometric figure into her field of gestural marks. Colorful lines and automatic writing that weave around a solid geometric mass grounded her compositions with a sense of space and depth. With a keen sense of color, she juxtaposed high-gloss geometric shapes within a velvety field of encaustic wax, as reflected in Buddha from 2011.

After a diagnosis of cancer in 2010, Chase retreated to her home in East Hampton. Her illness often left her struggling to find clarity in her work, and at times, she reworked a series of paintings for several years. With Halsey McKay gallery, near her home, she persevered and continued to create and show dynamic new work until she passed away in 2016.
Currently, Chase’s legacy is alive and well, and her tenacious spirit lives on through those who continue to champion her work with exhibitions and the preservation of her estate. Syracuse University’s Special Collections Library maintains The Louisa Chase Papers, an archive that includes her journals, personal papers and a nearly complete catalog of her print production of more than sixty editions, which is being compiled as a catalogue raisonné. The Estate of Louisa Chase is maintained by Hirschl & Adler Modern in New York, New York, which includes an inventory of her paintings, prints and drawings. The gallery maintains her art studio in East Hampton and, in collaboration with Syracuse University, has organized recent exhibitions of her work. The Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art is honored to collaborate with the Estate of Louisa Chase, Hirschl & Adler Modern and Syracuse University to bring to light this powerful female voice in contemporary art.