01Difficult Passage First Cry

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on February 15, 2015 at 8:45am

Curators Comments:

 

This first painting in what appears to be a mini series is a fusion of sweetness and impending distress.  The contortions of the baby’s face twist in fleshy gyrations approximating a yawn.  But I’m most attracted to the piece because of the broken color, and hot color palette.  In fact, these works remind me of Robert Henri’s portraits of children, with similar high chroma patches of reflection.  You didn’t indicate the scale of the actual work, but I imagine it could have a certain power on an intimate (infant) scale. The second Difficult Passage/First Cry painting is considerably more ferocious in intensity if not in agonized expression.  The eyes squinted shut into dark shadows prevent entry into the picture, or communication with the howling subject.  Lastly, the third image is even more angst ridden in that the features are more defined; no longer an impressionistic gesture, the face frozen in scream.  The cavern of the open mouth becomes an even stronger focus.  While certainly universal in expression, like the absent parent, the viewer hopes for another piece to quiet the pictorial sound.