The impersonal eye 1940

Conroy Maddox, he of the impersonal eye, seems to have made this painting with a light touch. The colors, all pastels and muted shades, suggest a calm and perhaps a hidden, quirky, humor. There's something so satisfying about the way the colors interact and overlap; that teal, for instance, playing against the soft lilac. Look at how the shapes are not quite representational, yet they hint at forms we recognize: vessels, figures, landscapes. The ground they stand on is no more than some scribbled lines, and I love the way the colors don't quite match-up. These little imperfections really make the work for me. It reminds me a little bit of Miro; Maddox has really carved out his own territory here. Art is an ongoing conversation, a process of seeing and re-seeing. Maddox isn't telling us what to think, but rather, inviting us to experience the world through his eyes.