Manhole

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on November 18, 2014 at 12:32pm

Curator’s Comments:

 

I can’t stop looking at this painting. There’s a brushy, surreal quality to the image that abstracts and softens the surprising scene.  The extreme tilt of the grassy horizon on the left side of the composition pushes all of the animate figures towards the foreground, while the linear perspective on the right side pushes back.  Spatially, the strange figure emerging from the manhole appears to exist within yet another plane of space; as the open rim of the manhole floats above the fuzzy littered ground rather than being formed within it.  The large scale of the actual work no doubt adds to the environmental complexity and multifaceted narrative. The fleshy pink coloration dominant in the whole picture eliminates the spatial illusion that could come from cooler temperature shifts, but unifies all of the disparate elements in the scene.  I also find it intriguing and somewhat comical that the open eyed deer appear more alert that the human focal point.  All appear focused on the large tulip and small bird in the extreme bottom left; but somewhat crisply rendered, the prizes stay beyond their grasp.