Hommage à André Colomer 1989

Jerome Mesnager's Hommage à André Colomer features a monochromatic figure painted with gestural marks against a textured brown background. I can imagine the artist working intuitively, the figure emerging from the canvas through layers of paint and spontaneous brushstrokes. There's this tension in the piece, this dialogue between the raw materiality of the surface and the delicate, almost ethereal quality of the white figure. I get the feeling that Mesnager was thinking about form and line, and how a few simple gestures can evoke so much emotion. The figure is lost in thought, propped up against a perforated metal plate. What's that all about? I wonder if the piece is a nod to other artists that have captured a similar mood, like Rodin's Thinker, or maybe even some of the old masters. Ultimately, it's up to us to bring our own experiences and interpretations to the work. Painting is never really finished, it's always in dialogue, offering new possibilities for seeing and feeling.