best left unsaid 2 16x16" oil on portrait linen
worked on this today. see yesterday's post for previous versions.
if you read my 9/10 post, you'll see the direction i'm headed with this series.
below left: a detail of this painting; right: the preliminary drawing for best left unsaid 3. i made this drawing today and will likely start the new painting tomorrow. haven't yet made up my mind whether to use a white canvas or a tinted ground like best left unsaid 2, on the right.
while browsing the moma dekooning retrospective catalogue this morning, i discovered a couple of very apt quotes relating to my recent creek inspired collages:
“….confusable, unstable images that switch identities, like ludwig wittgenstein’s famous duck-rabbit
figure, but confusable, unstable images that refuse to be claimed linguistically for identification,
something seen only fleetingly or under obscure circumstances.” john elderfield on dekooning
"homeless representation....a plastic and descriptive painterliness that is applied to abstract ends, but which continues to suggest representational ones." clement greenberg on dekooning, 1962
i think both elderfield and greenberg have encapsulated, with very spare, elegant phrasing, the spirit of my recent "abstract" work. i love "homeless representation" click on "recent works," to the right. take a look at some of these new collage/paintings and see if you agree.