Santos Retablos 1936

Maude Valle’s Santos Retablos presents us with a painted rendition of the crucifixion. There is a tenderness here, a hand-painted realness that comes from approaching artmaking as a process, of just doing it. Valle's marks are casual, not labored. Look at the way the figure is rendered, the way the body hangs. It’s so linear, like a drawing. The color is washy and transparent, there’s no concealing of the surface beneath. It’s all out there. And then there’s these little marks all over the surface. What are they? Are they a background pattern? Some kind of foliage? It’s hard to tell. I think it’s this ambiguity that is so special. There is something of Guston in this piece, or maybe Forrest Bess. Both artists who embraced the freedom of just making. The point is that there are no mistakes, only happy accidents.