This is the ultimate abstraction – it transcends even Pollock and his somewhat lazy spatters and almost doodling. This is sketching in the void but leaving behind the shell of emptiness that might just crack under the weight of the void itself. It’s a totally different level of opening oneself to the nebulous expanse of the universe.
Tag: contemporary
Sunday
This is color and pattern theory at their finest, most distilled points. You can’t take the pattern away without losing the impact of the layers of the color, but you can’t take the layers of color away from the pattern without destroying the impact of the pattern as a whole. BOOM.
Saturday
I like that this is a study of color over form. It’s vague and nebulous, kind of like a toxic cloud of grim vast grey-ness and gloom and doom, but with hints of other things that break up the dismal bleh.
Friday
This piece is profound because it is so simple. You, as a viewer, are a part of the artwork. You influence how it is seen and how it is reflected. It is as much about how you see it as it is about how the work actually is displayed.
Wednesday
This speaks of a desert landscape, arid, dry, broken lines and harsh, unyielding, and yet broken. I love it on so many levels.
Thursday
Of all the contemporary/modern artists on display at SLAM, Gerhard Richter is my favorite. I know how that sounds, but I adore all of the pieces of his that the museum owns – including this one. I hadn’t seen it before they unveiled the Bauhaus retrospective exhibition, but I kept coming back to it and going, “Oh, I love that so much.” I hadn’t even looked at the plaque, just the painting itself – and then suddenly, it all made so much sense. It has a very dreamy feel, much like Grey Mirrors (literally grey paneled mirrors) and Betty (a portrait version of his daughter), while maintaining an almost abstract version of real objects.
Sunday
When they decided to start reintroducing the Oceanic art (finally) after a long absence, this was one of the new pieces to go up. I squeed loudly and promptly took like a million pictures and still didn’t capture the essence of the piece. Until you’re standing face to face with Mataora with Hei Tiki, you don’t appreciate the power flowing through the piece. It is art that is suffused with ancestral power; it comes off of it in waves. Each line is like a verse of Shakespeare, weaving an intricate poetic spell in a story that we don’t quite understand. This is one of the most important contemporary pieces in the SLAM collection, and if you don’t believe it, there’s something wrong with you.
Wednesday
There is a dreamy, ethereal quality to this canvas that reminds me of sinking into the ocean and holding my breath for the longest time, looking through the sunbeams at fish. Living in Hawai’i for a time probably contributed to this.
Monday
This is one of my top 10 pieces of artwork. It has been since the moment I first saw it. There is just something about the dream-like state of semi-photo-realism that it exists in that makes it beyond stunning. It will literally stop you in your tracks.
Sunday
You can ask anyone: I am not a math wizard. However, I do enjoy a good pattern, and this is a good progression. It makes me feel happy, and it has ever since I first laid eyes on it. 🙂