Kenneth Wahl once compared the dynamics in his paintings to the movement of the stars. This is an uncharacteristically poetic statement from Wahl, an intellecual who is perfectly at ease with the rigorous theories favored by his contemporaries who avoid the equivocal language of poetry. This disctinction, however, is integral to understanding Wahl's paintings and his desire to release himself from the stranglehold of the theorists to reclaim a transcendence that has been anathema to so many of his contemporaries.