An Alpine Retreat

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on March 29, 2023 at 11:20am

Curator’s Comments:

An Alpine Retreat remains a popularly viewed image on the site despite it being posted back in 2012.  The colorful patina involving the entirety of the space suggests the erosion of time, as is a signature surface in your other assemblage works.  Dripping paint and abraded, scumbled pigment builds up a richness of complex hue relationships. But I’m more attracted to the manner in which the dimensional metal object in this painting hovers in space above the interrupted architectural structure and planar landscape.  It conjures a talismanic relationship or artifact. The rusted circle suggests a utilitarian bolt or fastener, while simultaneously summoning an eclipsed sun in a hazy sky. I’m also intrigued by the way in which walls of contrasting color are set at different angles, denying the viewer entry into the structure.  Earlier discussions about whether the architecture referenced an alpine retreat or covered bridge attest to it’s ambiguity, and shift between design structures and the geography areas that contain them.

Comment by James MacMahon on June 11, 2012 at 7:30pm

It might be interesting to list the 30 best titles of art works and then research how they came to be.

Comment by James MacMahon on June 11, 2012 at 7:19pm

A title can be difficult and sometimes gone astray. As in 'Whistler's Mother' was "Arrangement in Gray and Black".

Comment by Chris Noel on June 9, 2012 at 1:50pm

You are right. I might need to change the name.

Comment by James MacMahon on June 8, 2012 at 5:02pm

Interesting use of shapes and planes. My first thought was: A New England Covered Bridge.