Car Crash 2005

Bo Bartlett painted this, seemingly straightforward, scene of a car crash and a loving embrace. But, it has the appearance of a dream. There's a commitment to description and also a strange, slightly-off, quality of light. It’s how the paint describes the scene and builds the atmosphere of something real and unreal. The texture of the overturned car is so palpable, you can almost feel the rough scrapes and dents, each rendered with care. Then there is the light and color, particularly how the warmth of the distant field gives way to the figures in the foreground. Look at the embrace of the two figures, how Bartlett blurs the lines between them, making it almost impossible to distinguish one from the other. The merging of two people into one feels like the core of the piece. It reminds me of Philip Guston, how he painted the familiar in a way that feels both comforting and deeply unsettling. Just like Guston, Bartlett shows us that art isn't about perfection, but about embracing the messy, complicated beauty of being human.