Country Store 1939

Reginald Wilson made this monochromatic painting of a country store with oil on fiberboard. I can almost feel him there, patiently building up the forms with thin washes of black and gray. Look at the sign with gas prices and the figure leaning by the doorframe - the guy looks like he is waiting for something. He is waiting in the liminal space between the interior and exterior of the store. What I love about Wilson's painting is how each element seems caught in a state of becoming, somewhere between abstraction and representation, like a memory or a dream. Wilson's world has a tactile quality that invites you in to explore, but it is his vision that holds it all together. Painting allows for this kind of searching and questioning. The history of painting is also this ongoing exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. Isn't that great?