Echo 2019

Editor: Here we have Joshua Flint’s "Echo," created in 2019 using oil paint. The ethereal figures against the abstract background give the piece a very dreamlike, romantic quality. What do you see in this work? Curator: I am drawn to the interplay between figuration and abstraction. The brushstrokes themselves construct a visual language that moves beyond simple representation. Consider the foreground and background, seemingly distinct, yet connected through color and texture, blurring the lines of subject and environment. How do you think that the surface contributes to its meaning? Editor: Well, the brushstrokes definitely add to the feeling of impermanence. The painting seems to capture a fleeting moment or memory. There's tension in the contrast of loose and very carefully rendered brushstrokes. Curator: Precisely. It's a visual rhythm echoed throughout the piece. The formal aspects of the composition point towards the subject itself, and to a state of perpetual return and change. Note also that the formal dynamism exists between the dark blues, blacks, greys of the surrounding background, and is subtly yet powerfully contrasted to the muted shades of ochre and yellow used for the subjects. Editor: That's interesting, because without that chromatic divergence the figures may appear to melt into the background entirely. Thanks, I’m beginning to see this in a whole new light now. Curator: The inherent qualities of the paint are integral, because it also reinforces a feeling of connection between a possible interior psychological state of mind and physical reality, collapsing any stable notion of difference or separation. Editor: It definitely feels less like a depiction now, and more like an experience or evocation.