Anubis 1987

Rene Duvillier created 'Anubis' with expressive brushstrokes and a dramatic colour palette. It looks like the surface was wet, maybe he was pushing the paint around, letting it bleed, seeing what would happen. You can see the push and pull of dark and light, the way the black paint seems to creep in from the edges, contrasting with the ethereal blues and purples. Imagine Duvillier in his studio, responding to the evolving image, maybe thinking about his relationship to abstraction, what other artists have done before him. The orange marks are like tiny eruptions, adding a layer of intensity, drawing our eyes to the center of the painting. It makes me think of Joan Mitchell and Helen Frankenthaler, two painters who weren’t afraid to get messy and emotional with their work, like they are in conversation with each other, across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. Painting is embodied expression, an embrace of ambiguity, leaving open multiple interpretations.