Dream of Reality 1988

Editor: This is Eugene Brands' "Dream of Reality" from 1988, made with acrylic paint, including impasto application. It has a certain simplicity. I am intrigued by the stark contrast between the dark background and the white central form, almost like a simplified, stylized bed. What strikes you most about it? Curator: The title hints at the crux of the work; 'dream of reality.' To me, Brands here isn't so much representing a subject as engaging in an investigation of the very *process* of representation, using the materiality of paint itself. Acrylic allows for a flatness and immediacy. Consider the impasto: how does this tactile quality, the build-up of the material, change the relationship to the image? It’s both present and not, a quality he’s pushing throughout the picture plane. Editor: So, rather than seeing a picture *of* something, we're meant to be aware of the material decisions, the choices that brought it into being. I hadn't considered that tactile engagement so directly. The canvas and acrylic themselves are like tools. Curator: Exactly! And the socio-economic context matters too. Brands created this post-WWII in Europe where artists sought new means of expression, engaging in this manner with the materials as resistance to older traditions. He uses very base mediums here: canvas and acrylic. Are there other makers creating paintings like this that remind you of anything we've studied this semester? How else do the material choices themselves convey meaning? Editor: Well, in some ways it echoes the gestural abstraction of the time but more… pared down. Thinking about it as a 'dream of reality,' the visible brushstrokes feel crucial because they prevent us from seeing a completely formed object. It keeps the representation elusive, always a construction. I think, I was stuck looking *at* and not understanding how much it depends on materials, production and those postwar sensibilities! Curator: Precisely, looking into the labor of image creation opens many roads into understanding. It's been enriching to connect the 'what' to the 'how' in this artwork today.