The Four Moons
The last few paintings I have not written about from “Bonjour Monsieur Indigo” are small "minimalist" paintings similar to their larger sibling “Super Moon.” In each, there is a full moon against an indigo background.
 Dyptich, 20 x 40 cm Oil on two linen canvases 2014 - 2018 |
The two smallest pieces, Otium III and Otium IV, belong to the group of paintings that have stayed around “unfinished,” hidden and waiting in the studio. Moving studios unburied many of these dormant paintings and the coming show has a fair number of paintings 5+ years in the making. Painting is not a race, and sometimes, time is needed for the mind to catch up to initial intuition.
The Ghost of a Portrait:
Otium III (right)
2013 - 2018
Oil on linen
20 x 20 cm
In Otium III (right), there is underpainting that can be seen seeping through the layer of pale semi-transparent moonlight. The ghost image is a remnant of the initial painting. The Otium pieces were all inspired by a fabulous painting by Jacopo Zucchi of Cupid asleep with Psyche hovering over him holding an oil lamp. Up close, one can see the contours of Zucchi’s Cupid’s face and upper body acting like the shadows of lunar craters.
The Hidden Body:
Otium III (left)
2013 - 2018
Oil on linen
20 x 20 cm
Otium III (left) is more reticent. It was once before the lower body of Zucchi’s Cupid. Otium III is a dyptich, two canvases bolted together into one piece. The full moon falling off the right edge of this small canvas covers what was once Cupid’s privates. In Zucchi’s painting, this was a bouquet of flowers. The more distant moon on the left forever pulled towards the center of the larger moon on the right, leaning in, pulled in, falling in.
The Big Reveal:
Otium IV
2012 - 2017
Oil on canvas board
20 x 20 cm
In Otium IV, the full moon looms large in the background of a poet’s profile. It is a portrait in left profile. There is an illustrative quality to this piece, like a “bande-dessinée” as they say here in France. The human element is no longer hidden. The revelation? I hear in my mind something one would say when one loses a ball game, “It’s all good.”
The Blood Blue Moon:
D’une tonalité globalement framboise (Red Moon)
2017
Oil on canvas board
33 x 46 cm
Lunar nocturnes can search for dignity and fight and even resist against becoming either sweetly nostalgic or overtly romantic. This fight for respect can be bruising, and the result can lead to a body that has the general tonality of an over ripe raspberry.
The lunar nocturnes in “Bonjour Monsieur Indigo” do not attempt any funny détournement. These moons were painted in oils and there is no clever pretense, say of making photographs of pancakes look like a full moon. Can one paint in 2018, the year where we have had a Blood Blue Moon, with oil on canvas a fraught subject like full moons, Simply and without poretense? Come and see the show, and you can be the judge.
The Invitation:
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