An Evening, Chapter 32

2017

Lacquer, oil, textile, silkscreen ink, gesso on wood

94 × 152.5 × 3.2 cm (37 × 60 1/16 × 1 1/4 in.)

A white canvas strip streaks across a black background. Like an ancient frieze with disfigured motifs, it features the union of two anthropomorphic ochre silhouettes whose ghostly outlines blend into the abstract, neutral background.

An Evening, Chapter 32 is one of several panels in a long pictorial frieze forming a series of eponymous paintings, or "chapter" as artist Rebecca H. Quaytman calls it. Even the most stylised, suggested figurative motifs, as in the example, are replaced by an abstract general composition based on constant reflection about painting, its support and the potential of various techniques when they are combined.

An Evening, Chapter 32 was first presented by the Pinault Collection at the 2019 "Luogo e Segni" ("Place and Signs") show at the Punta della Dogana in Venice.
Exhibitions