Honesty 2020

Michael Cheval painted "Honesty," probably with oils, conjuring a dreamlike vision where the familiar becomes wonderfully strange. Look at the woman’s poised expression, and the way the red of her dress pops against the green background. This work is a testament to the power of color to evoke feeling. The painting feels smooth and considered; there are no brushstrokes here to give the game away, to tell us how it's done. The lack of texture gives it a surreal quality; the woman is there, but she is also not there, like a figure in a dream. And there, in the background, what is that hidden face? It is like a half-formed thought, lurking, watching. That face is the key, the thing that opens up the painting. It is what turns a competent portrait into something strange and surreal. Cheval reminds me of Magritte, in the way that he borrows from the tropes of traditional painting to create a riddle. Like Magritte, Cheval is interested in the ambiguity of images, and the multiple ways of interpreting the world.