Cronos 29 1982

Rene Duvillier made Cronos 29, sometime during his lifetime, using I'm guessing paint of some kind. I love the juicy, almost floral shape that the paint makes on the canvas. It's like looking at a microscopic organism, or maybe a strangely colored nebula. The texture, though, is really what grabs me. The paint isn’t applied smoothly but has this granulated quality, like it’s been dabbed or stippled. You can see how the marks are concentrated in the center and then dissipate towards the edges, creating a sense of movement. Look at how the splatters and dashes create an almost topographic map of the painting's surface, with peaks and valleys of color. It puts me in mind of Helen Frankenthaler. Both artists embrace this idea of letting the paint do its thing, creating these luminous, atmospheric spaces on the canvas. Ultimately, Duvillier reminds us that art is about the journey.