I went to the Armory about a month ago at this point and have had these two images on my phone since then. I found them to be so wonderful - quiet and insular - quite the opposite of the majority of the experience, garish and pathetic in its aesthetic and desire to make viewers take note. I finally looked into them further, remembering they were shown by Sean Kelly.
These paintings on paper along with many others were shown in January at that gallery as the first solo exhibition of Ilse D'Hollander's work in the United States. Such a tragic life, she made these in Belgium, in the year or two preceding her suicide at the age of 29 in 1997. Being the same age, and having felt so connected to these paintings knowing nothing of their making, I can't help but look for her thinking and experience within the images and I feel I come up with more with each pass.
And as the press release notes, she wrote: "A painting comes into being when ideas and the act of painting coincide.
When referring to ideas, it implies that as a painter, I am not facing
my canvas as a neutral being but as an acting being who is investing
into the act of painting. My being is present in my action on the
canvas." I think she succeeded marvelously at leaving her thinking and actions in the work. Beautiful, poetic notations to leave behind.
Here are a few more courtesy of the Sean Kelly website:
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