Noir d'ivoire I 2008

Monique Orsini made this painting, Noir d'ivoire I, with confident strokes of black on a white ground. I can imagine Orsini in the studio, maybe a little impatient, pushing the paint around, watching how the forms emerge and dissipate. It's a dance between control and accident. I see these big sweeping gestures, almost like she’s using a wide brush or maybe even a rag. The paint is thick in some spots, leaving a textured surface, and thin in others, allowing the white of the canvas to peek through. I love the way the black paint clumps and feathers out. It is gestural and full of movement, like a bird taking flight. Maybe Orsini was thinking about Franz Kline or some of the other abstract expressionists. They were all trying to get something raw and visceral down on canvas. Ultimately, painting is an act of conversation. Each stroke is a response to the one before, an ongoing dialogue across time, inspiring new ways of seeing and feeling. It's about embracing the unknown and letting the painting reveal itself.