Fleurs 1991

Eugene Leroy made "Fleurs" using paint, maybe oil, maybe acrylic, layered in thick, luscious strokes. It's clear Leroy understood artmaking as a process, a kind of building and excavation, all at once. There’s this tension in the material aspects of the work – the way the texture of the paint, thick and almost sculptural, butts up against the surface. It feels like you could dive right in. The colors, muted and earthy, with surprising pops of red and yellow, really grab you. Look closely at the lower left corner; there’s a tangle of blues and greens, like a hidden garden path. It seems to me that that's where everything either starts or ends, depending on how you're looking at it. Leroy reminds me a bit of Chaim Soutine, who was also obsessed with paint as matter and feeling. Like Soutine, Leroy embraces ambiguity, knowing that the best art doesn't give you all the answers, it just invites you to ask better questions.