self

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on August 24, 2016 at 8:45pm

Curator’s Comments:

 

Self has lured me in and captured my imagination; providing an earthy, shadowy space than is somehow evocative of both Classical Masterworks and contemporary surrealism. The arrangement is vaguely reminiscent of a Velasquez court scene, and as so I’m wondering if the composition is set up to suggest an embedded self-portrait within a larger single scene narrative.  The whitish figure on the left appears to be balanced by an ambiguous light curricular object in the foreground, as well as other figures on the right.  Again, I see the warm tonalities associated with traditional underpainting with oil glaze, with gestural brushstrokes serving as pentimenti, or traces of evolving forms.  The square orientation nicely sets up a triadic balance between the three main areas of interest, and when taken as a whole can be appreciated as pure abstraction. I also enjoy the faint structural lines within the work, signifying architectural interior as a time honored stage.  But aside from the nods to artistic canons, the painting is ultimately a mysterious and enduring personal work.