Seated Woman 1963

Charles Alston made 'Seated Woman' with oil on canvas using luscious hues of olive green, black, white, and gold. You can almost feel the energy and improvisation that went into the making of this piece. The painting seems to emerge from this soup of layered brushstrokes. I imagine Alston, brush in hand, circling the canvas, trying to discover what it is he's trying to say. I wonder if he started with an idea, or whether the idea came later, emerging from the paint itself? The woman seems to be sinking back into the background and emerging from it simultaneously. The curves of her breasts are defined by a stark black line, which meets with a vivid stripe of gold. Alston was a figurative painter, so this more gestural style makes me think of other artists like de Kooning. These artists are in an ongoing dialogue with one another, an exchange of ideas across time, and in their painting they are offering us a new way of seeing the world. Ultimately, painting embraces ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations over any fixed meaning.