Alain Séchas

at Galerie Chantal Crousel

Pastels 8, 2012

You have two forces pulling you in different directions : Logic (black lines) and Feelings(red lines). If you go by the Logic only, your life would be deserted and sterile (the right parts of the painting). If you succumb to your feelings, you would get overwhelmed by them. And eventually you would be drawn in chaos(the left parts of the painting). But if you keep to the middle (the center parts of the painting), avoiding extremities, your life will flourish. Balance is everything.

Joan Miro

at Lelong Editions (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Chef des équipages, 1974

A true leader feels the mood of his group. It is like he has neuron connections to different people / places ( the black lines that go to the top and the lower ends look like hooks). People are gravitating toward him ( the green ribbon in the left center). Every crises is used to process, to learn and to improve himself (the red stains from the upper middle to the solid colors in the lower right).

Julije Knifer

at galerie frank elbaz (Frieze Art Fair New York 2012)

M.5.60 (Méandre n°5), 1960

If you are a white-or-black person, you can think of yourself as an organized one. You can sort anything into two neat piles. But the life is not easy for you, because Life is not black-n-white. So you need to go a long way to get to the destination (just as a river does at a meander). And you don't notice that, but you close yourself into a box from which you can't escape. The main thing is that when you are black-or-white person, most of the time most of the colors are gray.

Julije Knifer

at Galerie Frank Elbaz(Frieze Art Fair New York 2012)

AP 35, 2003

Are you a black kind of person that accumulates energy(the black rectangle in the lower left corner) then runs along a narrow strip(the adjacent narrow vertical black line). Then he jumps sideways to another narrow strip (in the center), so he can build up his energy level for the next jump(the black rectangle in the upper left corner). Or are you a white kind of person that methodically and slow overcome all the obstacles and moves from the lower left corner to the upper right corner. The thing is no matter what way you choose (white or black) you will get to the same point.

Joan Mirò

Joan Mirò at Brame and Lorenceau (TEFAF Maastricht 2012)

Composition au visage, 1965

This is human memory. It is like a fishing net. It catches some events(the blue stain or the red stain in lower right corner) or persons(red-green circle or yellow-black one). And some things slip through with water(time) as  the black dots or pink background stains here. The things that memory catches are changing your memories. They create new associations. They bend the memory to accommodate the events and rationalize them.

Camille Bryen

 Camille Bryen at Applicat-Prazan (TEFAF Maastricht 2012)

New York, 1955

New York is a very vibrant and diverse city. There is so much to do and to see(All those small stains and figures). The place is filled with energy(blue tones). People are hustling around.You are getting charged with the surrounding energy(the white stain in the center with blue inlets). You want to hurry somewhere and do something. But there are so many things you can do, you freeze in the middle unsure what is your next move is. You feel alienated, rejected and unwelcome. You reflect your feelings onto the city. You are starting to dislike it(black stains and yellow-green background).

Joseph Stella

Joseph Stella at Galerie 1900-2000 (Art Basel Miami Beach 2011)

Untitled

This is Changes. Look at it as a whirlpool, starting from the lower black spot, moving then to the upper black stain and continue to the center black stain.The black stains are a person and how this person changes over time. The time and history are shown as yellow and orange figures on the borders. The lower black stain is when a person is young and full of energy. He has a long flag pole full of flags (principles and ideas). As the time progresses, so the person is getting older and loses the energy, principles and ideas.

Claude Rutault

Claude Rutault at Galerie Perrotin (Art Basel Miami Beach 2011)

Definition/method 295. the challenge of painting

This is actually an installation, but I would like to look at it as a painting. The brown square is a picture based on earthiness, pragmatism that is a representative art.   The read square (hardly seen) is abstract art.The representative art is relatively easy to identify, create and consume. The abstract art on the other hand is hard to conceptualize, you need really look hard for it. You have to have an insight. 

Anselm Reyle

Anselm Reyle at Almine Rech Gallery (Art Basel Miami Beach 2011)

Untitled

This is a life of a person. First, there is nothing. You are starting to learn about borders and boundaries. Then you are trying to revolt (the pink stains at the right bottom). Eventually it goes away, and you start filling the blanks in your life(center). At some point you start degenerating, your life became black.At the end the black turns into a blank again.