The lower two-thirds of the canvas feature circular stains that suggest underwater rock formations. One day, not long ago, I lost myself staring into the series’ tallest work, “Specific Notation,” which, at twelve feet, threatens to reach the gallery’s ceiling. The heads and bodies of models from the pages of Ebony magazine are choked in inky waters. Thin strips of what look like newspaper text are layered into a mountain in the painting “Blue Turned Temporal,” the meaning disintegrated. But within these views of nature she plants artifacts of culture. Turner or Chinese shan shui compositions. Using graduated saturations of ink-wash over gesso, Simpson builds landscapes and seascapes that recall J. The works in “Darkening,” a new exhibit of paintings by the artist Lorna Simpson, at Hauser & Wirth, are monumental panels that drown the viewer in blues-some shades so potent that they are black, purple.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |