Untitled
Artist
Raoul De Keyser
(Belgian, born 1930)
Date2006
MediumOil and charcoal on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 14 x 17 inches (35.56 x 43.18 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: acquired through the generosity of the William T. Kemper Foundation–Commerce Bank, Trustee
Object number2007.4
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionThis painting consists of an irregular linear motif, painted in a dark red that forms an unbroken and distorted circular motif over a background of very pale gray/blue. The background has a few more or less straight lines punctuated with dots, in a slightly darker gray/blue than the ground.Gallery LabelIn Raoul De Keyser's untitled painting, lines and dots are presented as tentative passages beneath a sheer, white ground. This quietude is interrupted by a heavily painted red motif.
The four dots in Untitled may refer to those in a painting De Keyser made in 1990. In that painting, four dots represented the gunshots that killed four members of the outlaw Dalton Gang in Coffeyville, Kansas.
The red organic shape may have been inspired by ordinary forms-a coffee stain or a pattern of asphalt on a street. As it relates to the gunshot allusion, it may suggest the outline of a pool of blood. Whatever the references, the real subject of Untitled is its formal qualities of painting: line, shape, color and proportion.
The four dots in Untitled may refer to those in a painting De Keyser made in 1990. In that painting, four dots represented the gunshots that killed four members of the outlaw Dalton Gang in Coffeyville, Kansas.
The red organic shape may have been inspired by ordinary forms-a coffee stain or a pattern of asphalt on a street. As it relates to the gunshot allusion, it may suggest the outline of a pool of blood. Whatever the references, the real subject of Untitled is its formal qualities of painting: line, shape, color and proportion.
CopyrightThis work is copyrighted. Contact Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
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