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拍品专文
[Humphries’s paintings] discourage stationary viewing. They seem to want to be perceived from multiple viewpoints.” Cecily Brown
Beginning her career in earnest only shortly after critics had declared the medium of painting dead, Jacqueline Humphries railed against this notion in a systematic exploration of the history of painting and its place in an increasingly digital society. Though working with traditional materials, large-scale abstractions like Untitled refer to the unstable nature of light and the ways in which the environment affects a finished canvas. Establishing the connection between audience and artwork, Humphries plays with ideas of absorption that diverge from Modernist ideals and instead take entire viewing spaces into account. “[In these works] Humphries’s move beyond the canvas is made literal… the viewer is strongly tempted to dance in front of paintings that seem to change according to one’s viewpoint. And while a shifting center (or total lack of center) has, of course, long been the prerogative of abstract painting, its affect has rarely been so obviously generated by the viewer instead of by the artist” (J. Burton, “Jacqueline Humphries: Greene Naftali Gallery”, Artforum, February 2007, Vol. 45, No 6, p. 292). Eschewing the all over painting as well as the central figure in her canvases, Humphries instead creates catalysts for dynamic viewing.
“I start a painting by finishing it, then may proceed to unfinish it, make holes in it or undo it in various ways, as a kind of escape from that finitude, or wiping down the canvas, getting at what is behind the painting, what is the real of the canvas and support.” Jacqueline Humphries
Monumental in scale, Untitled reads like a vast, craggy glacier of metallic ice set against pitch-black rocks. Solid areas of silver are interrupted by red, yellow, and blue underpainting while simultaneously battling for control of the image with smears and streaks of obsidian paint. The lower left corner offers some visual respite as billowing clouds of pigment make their way toward the edge, but the visual weight of the rest of the composition presents a crushing pressure upon the otherwise ephemeral application. In a 2012 interview, the artist noted: “I’m continuing to work with the metallic paint that I’ve been involved with for some years now, where the light isn’t in the painting, but remains outside it. I start a painting by finishing it, then may proceed to unfinish it, make holes in it or undo it in various ways, as a kind of escape from that finitude, or wiping down the canvas, getting at what is behind the painting, what is the real of the canvas and support” (J. Humphries, quoted in P. Soto, “Painting in Silver and Noir: Q+A with Jacqueline Humphries,” Art in America, April 27, 2012). Working backward from the clean plane of a ‘finished’ canvas, Humphries is able to introduce deliberate disruptions and disturbances into the otherwise pristine silver field.
“Using painting as a means of understanding the world around her, Humphries often references the relentless march of technology in the same breath as the legacy of Abstract Expressionism.”
Using painting as a means of understanding the world around her, Humphries often references the relentless march of technology in the same breath as the legacy of Abstract Expressionism. Works like Untitled, part of a series of silver paintings that capture and refract light upon their surfaces, make allusion to the cinema screen and the computer monitor in equal measure. Shifting dynamically as the viewer moves, each painted area seems to shimmer and change on
the otherwise static surface. In a conversation with the artist, painter Cecily Brown posited that Humphries’s paintings “discourage stationary viewing. They seem to want to be perceived from multiple viewpoints” (C. Brown, in conversation with J. Humphries, in: C. Brown, “Jaqueline Humphries by Cecily Brown”, BOMB 107, Spring 2009, online). By embracing the active nature of her work, Humphries has been able to experiment more fully beyond the traditional boundaries of abstract painting. Whether by bringing black lights into the gallery or introducing ASCII characters into the swirl of brushwork, the artist has gone beyond the limits of the picture plane to interact with the ever-changing world outside.
Beginning her career in earnest only shortly after critics had declared the medium of painting dead, Jacqueline Humphries railed against this notion in a systematic exploration of the history of painting and its place in an increasingly digital society. Though working with traditional materials, large-scale abstractions like Untitled refer to the unstable nature of light and the ways in which the environment affects a finished canvas. Establishing the connection between audience and artwork, Humphries plays with ideas of absorption that diverge from Modernist ideals and instead take entire viewing spaces into account. “[In these works] Humphries’s move beyond the canvas is made literal… the viewer is strongly tempted to dance in front of paintings that seem to change according to one’s viewpoint. And while a shifting center (or total lack of center) has, of course, long been the prerogative of abstract painting, its affect has rarely been so obviously generated by the viewer instead of by the artist” (J. Burton, “Jacqueline Humphries: Greene Naftali Gallery”, Artforum, February 2007, Vol. 45, No 6, p. 292). Eschewing the all over painting as well as the central figure in her canvases, Humphries instead creates catalysts for dynamic viewing.
“I start a painting by finishing it, then may proceed to unfinish it, make holes in it or undo it in various ways, as a kind of escape from that finitude, or wiping down the canvas, getting at what is behind the painting, what is the real of the canvas and support.” Jacqueline Humphries
Monumental in scale, Untitled reads like a vast, craggy glacier of metallic ice set against pitch-black rocks. Solid areas of silver are interrupted by red, yellow, and blue underpainting while simultaneously battling for control of the image with smears and streaks of obsidian paint. The lower left corner offers some visual respite as billowing clouds of pigment make their way toward the edge, but the visual weight of the rest of the composition presents a crushing pressure upon the otherwise ephemeral application. In a 2012 interview, the artist noted: “I’m continuing to work with the metallic paint that I’ve been involved with for some years now, where the light isn’t in the painting, but remains outside it. I start a painting by finishing it, then may proceed to unfinish it, make holes in it or undo it in various ways, as a kind of escape from that finitude, or wiping down the canvas, getting at what is behind the painting, what is the real of the canvas and support” (J. Humphries, quoted in P. Soto, “Painting in Silver and Noir: Q+A with Jacqueline Humphries,” Art in America, April 27, 2012). Working backward from the clean plane of a ‘finished’ canvas, Humphries is able to introduce deliberate disruptions and disturbances into the otherwise pristine silver field.
“Using painting as a means of understanding the world around her, Humphries often references the relentless march of technology in the same breath as the legacy of Abstract Expressionism.”
Using painting as a means of understanding the world around her, Humphries often references the relentless march of technology in the same breath as the legacy of Abstract Expressionism. Works like Untitled, part of a series of silver paintings that capture and refract light upon their surfaces, make allusion to the cinema screen and the computer monitor in equal measure. Shifting dynamically as the viewer moves, each painted area seems to shimmer and change on
the otherwise static surface. In a conversation with the artist, painter Cecily Brown posited that Humphries’s paintings “discourage stationary viewing. They seem to want to be perceived from multiple viewpoints” (C. Brown, in conversation with J. Humphries, in: C. Brown, “Jaqueline Humphries by Cecily Brown”, BOMB 107, Spring 2009, online). By embracing the active nature of her work, Humphries has been able to experiment more fully beyond the traditional boundaries of abstract painting. Whether by bringing black lights into the gallery or introducing ASCII characters into the swirl of brushwork, the artist has gone beyond the limits of the picture plane to interact with the ever-changing world outside.