One of the founders of the Washington Color School and currently professor of art at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, Leon Berkowitz’ paintings are in important collections here and in Europe. Recent (1976-1978) major oil paintings are being shown at Virginia Miller Galleries (3112 Commodore Plaza, Coconut Grove) through July 11.

The artist continues: “In my present painting color is held in the eyeas levels of light. Monet saw his waterlilies through a reflected sky. The blue sky melts every surface it falls on ... In everything I see out of doors I look through a reflected sky. As long as color is seen through an atmosphere, it can never be flat”

Indeed, these recent paintings are not flat color field paintings. With impeccable brush strokes, Berkowitz layers soft fluid color—hotly brilliant red and oranges: vibrating violet and greens—which blend and move, but never dissolve into elusive atmospheric mists. Rather, the subtly defined hues create optical illusions of three-dimensional space.

Leon Berkowitz’ luminous paintings are poetic images—emotional and mystical—as he endeavors “to find the blush of light over light and the color within light.”