3rd Level 2017

David Michael Hinnebusch made "3rd Level" with a real hodge-podge of strokes and colors, all shifting in ways that suggest a painting that came into being through trial, error, and intuition. I really feel for Hinnebusch here, sloshing around in a palette of yellows, reds, and blues, trying to make sense of figures and forms. I can almost see him pacing around the canvas, brush in hand, wondering where to put the next mark. The paint is applied in these thin, drippy layers, which gives the whole thing this raw, exposed feeling. Look at the way he’s rendered the figures with such quick, gestural lines. There’s a vulnerability there, like he’s baring his soul on the canvas. It reminds me a little of late de Kooning, that sense of grappling with figuration and abstraction all at once. Ultimately, artists are in an ongoing exchange, aren't they? Each inspiring the other across time. In the end, this piece feels more like a question than an answer, and that’s what makes it so compelling.