Untitled Abstraction #11
Untitled Abstraction #11, Pencil on Paper 2014
Thoughts
This work is structured around the idea of a large declarative statement, something like a brand name on a billboard. The yellow forms function as language. everything else operates as the supporting structure in which that language exists. The few letters present are Turret style noises. In quiet moments, when I am alone without external input, I get these mostly single syllable noises in my mind.
Craftsmanship
The use of white space creates separation and gives the forms room to register. Overall, the mark making and color application feel amateur. I feel now there was an opportunity to push color saturation, and mark making variation further. Despite long familiarity with colored pencil, to me this reads as a period of still calibrating the medium.
Conceptual
The piece functions as a response to prior work rather than a predefined concept. The work is reacting to the last abstract drawings I was working on before this.
Historical Influence
The work fits with the basic concept of what Abstract Expressionism is. It could be read as a form of illustrative abstraction, though that label is imprecise. The position I think I was taking is closer to a rejection of Clement Greenberg’s formalist framework while still reacting to the abstract expressionists that have so dominated the art world the last 80 years.