Palette noir 1992

Eugene Brands made this painting, Palette Noir, using oil paint, but when it was made is anyone’s guess. What I really get from this is a process, a thought experiment, a vibe. There’s something so blunt about the application of the paint; a thick white splodge and a bulbous red mass sit within a pool of black, surrounded by a pale field of beige. I can imagine the artist standing in front of the canvas in a state of curiosity about how these gestures and colors might interact, pushing and pulling at each other. See how the white seems to drip? How the red appears to bubble? The materiality is upfront and centre, and the tension between the forms is almost theatrical. I am reminded of late Guston. But unlike Guston’s cartoonish figuration, Brands remains abstract. What we are left with is simply the act of painting, laid bare.