Curious about her odd, uncharacteristic pink painting (image above) on display at Frieze last week, I wrote LA artist Rebecca Morris and asked her about it. Here’s what she told me:
“Thanks for asking about that painting! It was nice for me to have it up at the fair. It is a little bit older– from 2007 if that helps to explain it a bit. And this was the first time it has been shown.
I think it got made and there was no direct showing opportunity or something and then on top of that it, it being such its own “thing.” (There is a sister painting to this one in turquoise that I have also never shown.) But regardless both are related to some collages/ works on paper from 2005 and ideas that formed through those. The technique is not sprayed but actually hand flicked oil paint over scraps of cardboard that were laying around my studio from other pieces and projects. While it may look different to some of my more recent paintings it is very concerned with so many of the same issues: my on-going fascination with edges and framing; how forms meet or don’t meet; and what gets articulated and emphasized (and how) by edging. I use this technique of flicking in other pieces too–in smaller areas– but haven’t composed an entire image from it since this one and its mate. “
And then, over in the Harris Lieberman booth, this painting, more typical of Morris’s recent work, was also on display.
Related posts:
EMAIL: Rebecca Morris writes regarding Raoul De Keyser
Rebecca Morris: Stubborn and independent
Isn’t it ironic?
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Departure or not, the painting is terrifically evocative in terms of line, color, and technique. It would be edifying to see it shown alongside both its turquoise partner and some of Morris's more familiar work as a means of illuminating the edge, framing, and form concerns that she mentions.