six bottles

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on December 30, 2022 at 3:45pm

Curator’s Comments:

It’s almost impossible for me to look at a painting of bottles and not think of Giorgio Morandi. Six Bottles is a distinctly more abstract approach to the subject, and yet the objects arranged in a loose horizonal line take on similar figurative relationships. The cool blue and green cast shadows provide shape contrast; almost serving as secondary objects in the still life rather than changes in natural light. It’s a surprising use of value when coupled with the faint edge where the back wall meets the ground.   The left vertical “seam” where the walls meet on the left side of the composition grounds this dreamy space. In other areas, the paint looks thickly applied.  Impasto strokes moving across the girth of the orange bottle create a visual pattern in addition to cross-contour banding.  These subtle shifts hold the viewers’ attention and transmit the haptic pleasure of the paint.