Curatorial notes
Deborah Azzopardi gave us this painting, Pure Gold, with an intriguing mix of flat colour and linear details. The flat planes of gold, black, and red create a high-contrast scene, while the simple lines imply form, so it's almost like a page from a graphic novel. The tension between the two gloved hands and the face is really interesting, don't you think? There is the very active black glove, echoed by the lines of the hair, and the passivity of the pale skin and red lips. It’s almost like the black gloved hand and the tube of lipstick become stand-ins for a person, and the face is just a surface that receives. Pure Gold reminds me of Patrick Nagel’s work, where female figures are distilled into simplified, elegant forms, but with a definite pop art edge, a hint of the bold and the brash, it leaves you wanting to know the story behind this striking image.