Stranger

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on July 9, 2021 at 12:25pm

Curator’ Comment:

Stranger came up randomly on the site for me today, and it’s intuitive, tactile qualities drew me in for closer viewing.  The neutral sepia and umber tones unify the craggy surface texture, and provide rich contrast against the creamy and powdery whites.  Scale isn’t indicated on this work, and it looks to me as though it could be a detail of larger piece.  Looking through your other images on the site, I remember admiring the painting entitled Experiment, with a similar color palette and fragmentary feeling to the composition. While Stranger initially appears to have larger blocks of tonal compartments, the thinly traced line around the darker areas of value contrast suggest to me the tracing of mortar within a stone or block wall.  The delicate line also injects a sense of intentionality into the painting, whereas the other forms look as though they could have been constructed through natural forces- without evidence of the artist’s hand through brushwork or graduated modeling. This is intriguing piece, and I do hope you consider adding newer works to the site.