Happy Birthday

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on July 6, 2012 at 8:47am

Curator’s Comment:

 

The incredibly vibrant color attracts me into this piece, but I’m held by the strange but captivating expressions on the animals.  The central rabbit figure is especially intriguing- he relays an uncertain emotion, and the topographic lines across his head are more sculpturally topographic than decorative.  Small bits of red and blue in his rich brown fur carry into the rest of the space, tying him and his companions to the lavish landscape.  The ultramarine blue throughout the painting appears almost fluorescent- from the clouds to the piercing eyes of the llama on the right.  Their costumes are equally intense, offering the viewer little visual rest within the picture plane. I see this love of color in your other images on the site, but the drawing quality and rendering in Happy Birthday is more ambiguous and complex psychologically, and so for me has the most power.