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A Giant of Painting Sheds New Light on Darkness | A Giant of Painting Sheds New Light on Darkness |
(7 days later) | |
“Some darknesses refuse to fade,” the poet Danielle DeTiberus observed after contemplating “Judith Beheading Holofernes” by Artemisia Gentileschi. Having recently seen the dark paintings by Pierre Soulages at Lévy Gorvy Dayan gallery, in Manhattan, the poet’s lyric resonated. | “Some darknesses refuse to fade,” the poet Danielle DeTiberus observed after contemplating “Judith Beheading Holofernes” by Artemisia Gentileschi. Having recently seen the dark paintings by Pierre Soulages at Lévy Gorvy Dayan gallery, in Manhattan, the poet’s lyric resonated. |
DeTiberus, in “The Artist Signs Her Masterpiece, Immodestly,” sees in Gentileschi’s depiction of a revenge killing the assertion of her agency. Sometimes we come to a fuller reckoning of ourselves through the most Stygian passageways. The work of Soulages, a French artist who died last year at age 102, after more than 70 years in persistent investigation of black paint, convinces me that, for him, the truth was not only that the darknesses didn’t fade, but that his curiosity and conviction that he would continue to make discoveries in the dark also didn’t wane. | DeTiberus, in “The Artist Signs Her Masterpiece, Immodestly,” sees in Gentileschi’s depiction of a revenge killing the assertion of her agency. Sometimes we come to a fuller reckoning of ourselves through the most Stygian passageways. The work of Soulages, a French artist who died last year at age 102, after more than 70 years in persistent investigation of black paint, convinces me that, for him, the truth was not only that the darknesses didn’t fade, but that his curiosity and conviction that he would continue to make discoveries in the dark also didn’t wane. |
Other artists have made similar excursions. Lee Bontecou created sculptures in which a black, seductive void threatens to swallow the viewer whole. Franz Kline fashioned black calligraphic lines that look like the errant script of some drunken, primordial god. Kerry James Marshall used jet black skin tones to make Black people seem like human archetypes birthed from a subterranean womb. Ad Reinhardt painted subtly dark canvases at the edge of our eyes’ scotopic capabilities, their hues legible only after prolonged looking. | Other artists have made similar excursions. Lee Bontecou created sculptures in which a black, seductive void threatens to swallow the viewer whole. Franz Kline fashioned black calligraphic lines that look like the errant script of some drunken, primordial god. Kerry James Marshall used jet black skin tones to make Black people seem like human archetypes birthed from a subterranean womb. Ad Reinhardt painted subtly dark canvases at the edge of our eyes’ scotopic capabilities, their hues legible only after prolonged looking. |