Bluechain 2018

Eckart Hahn made this painting, Bluechain, with oil on canvas. The surface shimmers with dark light, and the chain in the foreground looks smooth like a cartoon rendering, or a surrealist’s dream. I wonder if Hahn started with the bird’s head, yellow and inquisitive, like a Muppet looking in on the scene? And then what? Did he have the title, Bluechain, and then figure out how to make the links snake across the ground? I try to imagine him in the studio, step by step. Hahn probably took a long hard look at the painting as it developed, letting it take him somewhere unexpected. A conversation between him and the canvas. The top link of the chain is red, supporting a perfect yellow orb, like the end of a child’s abacus. Is he inviting us into a symbolic order, or to revel in the joy of not knowing? Hahn's work reminds me that painting embraces ambiguity, so that we can all find new meanings over time.