“…fiercely unrelaxing, and impossible to ignore.” That’s how Anthony Lane describes a movie in one of his reviews.
That’s how I feel about these paintings. The arrows, wedges, dots, and now three-stripes are very insistent in directing my attention. I follow the direction, can’t help it. But once I arrive at that point or the other point, I find nothing there and, therefore, have to move on to some other focal point. This is true of the geometric shapes that are “on top,” but it’s also true that the “background” shapes, those round undulating colors direct one’s attention. The game never ends.
It’s not that you’re trying to figure out what the painting is about, but that your mind curls up in introspection, as if to ask, why is this happening to me?
Flipping it horizontally brings no rest, does it. How can something so restless feel, at the same time, so balanced?
Painting by Bruce Hatton Boyer, oil on canvas, 30” x 40”
Quote from Anthony Lane in The New Yorker, May 6, 2016, p 77.
https://artamaze.wordpress.com/2016/08/25/black-dot-anthropocentrism/
https://artamaze.wordpress.com/2016/08/29/untitled-ii-stretch/
https://artamaze.wordpress.com/2016/08/29/untitled-iii-rack/
https://artamaze.wordpress.com/2016/08/29/untitled-iv-asperatus-clouds/
https://artamaze.wordpress.com/2016/08/29/untitled-v-blue-rectangle/
https://artamaze.wordpress.com/2016/08/29/untitled-vi-back-and-forth/
All contents copyright (C) 2010 Katherine Hilden. All rights reserved.
artamaze by Katherine Hilden 