La joie du sacrifice 2008

Carlos Sablòn made this painting called La joie du sacrifice, we don't know exactly when, but it feels both timeless and of-the-moment. It is a painting conjured out of texture, thin washes, and earth tones. I imagine Sablòn layering these colors to build a complex atmosphere. It makes me think of the old masters, like Rembrandt, who knew how to get light from dark. Here, the figure is a man on a cross, dressed in a suit. He’s wearing a hat, even. The blood is minimal—thin red lines like tears. What I love is the way Sablòn uses the symbolic to talk about something so common: the feeling of giving yourself over to something that might hurt. It reminds me of other painters who mess with symbols, like Francis Picabia or Sigmar Polke, or even my own paintings, where I mix high and low, abstraction and representation. What does it mean to sacrifice our own desires? Is it joyful? Is it absurd? Sablòn is in good company, and it makes you wonder about all the sacrifices we make for work, for love, for art.