ARTIST STATEMENT
The paintings seek to create a field of energy that reaches into the room, allowing turbulences, both evident and subtle, to be suspended, or come to rest. They are intended as agents of focus, transformation or peace.
On the most part, they are the result of a process of laying down multiple layers of water-based paint on thin wood panel. Sections within the paintings are separated by simple divisions of color, texture or bands of paint. These precise or fluid divisions, their placement, thickness or transparency are as central to the work as are the fields which they divide.
Some of the works contain scratches into the paint in an imagistic handwriting I've named Écriture. Though the word in French simply means writing, it points here to the self as writing subject, reaching out to the viewer as reader and observing other, and to the world at large.
SUITS
The series Suits sets out to explore the painted surface as fabric, material and the mechanisms guiding its production and distribution.
A tailor sews a suit
of grey on grey and blue on blue
and lavender and brown,
and he wears it into town
so all can see that in the seams
he’s put his longing and his dreams
for a more human world
and common ground,
A more human world, common ground
-- from Common Ground, one of a trilogy of songs on painter Mark Rothko, © Amy Antin
THINKING
Each of the paintings has emerged from a process of thinking-- with respect, appreciation and even tenderness for a particular artist who has directed my consciousness and understanding of art.
As I paint their ideas and biographies come into play and guide, without dominating, the decision-making process.
The colors, forms and textures here are my own, but I was not alone.
For though their influence is not necessarily evident in or illustrated by the work, I believe it may be felt.
To put it simply, the idea was not to paint like them, but with them,-- and this is the result.
VIEWING
A online catalogue of my work is available upon request at: amyantin(at)gmail.com
For a list of solo and group art exhibitions to date, please go to CV on the website.
An ongoing exhibition of my work is currently on view over two floors at
Praxis Dr. Eva Kalman, Oststrasse 49, 40211 Düsseldorf.