By Mary Voelz Chandler
Rocky Mountain News

COLORADO SPRINGS - It's tough to combine the jobs of artist and educator - tough on time, tough on energy, just tough. But for years, Floyd Tunson has walked that line, teaching here, living in Manitou Springs, and showing with numerous galleries.

Tunson recently retired from teaching, though, and through the efforts of two arts organizations, those who have relished the many phases of his work now can reap the benefits of two shows.

"American Standard" fills two galleries (and a hallway) at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. This serves as a sort of midcareer retrospective of the painter's figurative and non-representational work over the past decade. It would be nice to be more specific about dates, but none of the pieces includes that information on the label, the show is not hung chronologically, and the accompanying catalog, though handsome, does not give a sense of time.

But that's a small quibble: Those who have followed this remarkable painter's career will spot landmarks along the way.

The same cannot be said of "Rudiments" at Sandy Carson Gallery in Denver, but that is because the work is all new - new and surprising in terms of the direction in which Tunson is proceeding.

Through the years, the Denver-born painter has demonstrated a sure hand at expressing several truly different types of work, and that is what "American Standard" is all about. Cathy L. Wright, Taylor Museum director and chief curator at the Fine Arts Center, has pulled from several key series to create this show:

• In-your-face representational pieces, which, through assemblage and paint, address the issue of race;

• Soaring non-representational works, both those from the early "Nubian" series and some more recently seen at Carson Gallery in late 2003;

• Fine constructions from his "Synchro-Mesh" series, which concentrate on parts of vehicles and the balance of material and movement, and a couple of surprises.

Those include two versions - one huge, and one tiny enough to sit on a pedestal - of Crate of Paintings, in which pieces of art are captured in a container, as Tunson's work never really is.

Among the standouts of this African-American's best known work are Canary Metaphor, dating from a 1995 show at Robischon Gallery and a commentary on the precarious state of identity (and safety) of young black men, and Hearts and Minds. The latter, a requiem to violence and despair, takes up a full wall and almost sucks the oxygen out of the gallery - it is that strong.

And then there is the abstract work, especially the exuberant and complex painting Untitled #107, which lit up Carson last year with its emphasis on the act of applying, flinging and dripping paint.

More of that joyous painting technique fills the new Carson show, where Tunson's work is interspersed with wall-hung constructions by Jeremy Jernegan that combine metal and ceramic in pieces that consider geometry and perspective.

Tunson's new paintings there begin where those at the Center leave off, bold abstractions that radiate color and expression. But then Tunson slowly begins to take another path, introducing formal lines and arcs, and dots in black and white, with an occasional swipe or two of color. (The finely balanced Untitled #112 is a masterful mix of both, with linked circles that relate to the motion of the Synchro-Mesh series.)

Finally, there are the severely composed paintings, all in black and white, such as Untitled #113, in which concentric, but broken circles pull the eye into focus. And in Untitled #111, Tunson goes for broke, with an immense grid of canvases connected by a network of lines and arcs that also serve to pull the piece in a dozen directions.

Fittingly, during the show's opening weekend, the Center sponsored a talk by Cydney Payton, now director-curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art/ Denver (and, years ago at Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, curator of a Tunson retrospective that included "Hearts and Minds"). Carson attended, and that seemed to bring the duo of shows in register and life full circle.

Payton, who wrote the forward to the "American Standard" catalog, said Tunson's work left a legacy of "urgency, respect, a sort of social truth serum."

I would add only that in covering all the bases - making sculptural pieces, paintings and constructions, whether incorporating figurative elements or going full-bore abstract - Tunson has broken free of one of the occasional stereotypes of the art world.

If that is "social truth serum," so be it. If that is unbridled talent, with an eye trained on honesty, that works, too, as a reason to expect more changes in the future, as he continues to teach in a different way.

Two views American Standard

• What: A decade of work by Floyd Tunson

• Where and when: Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St.; through March 6

• Information: 719-634-5581, www.csfineartscenter.org

Rudiments

• What: New work by Floyd Tunson, with "Lines of Position," wall-hung steel and ceramic constructions by Jeremy Jernegan

• Where and when: Sandy Carson Gallery, 760 Santa Fe Drive

• Information: 303-573-8585, www.sandycarsongallery.com

Mary Voelz Chandler is the art and architecture critic. Chandlerm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2677.