Judith Berry
Hand to Hand
2022

Name: Hand to Hand
Brand: Judith Berry
Price: 5400 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

The themes visited in this show stem from a desire to extend the vocabulary of my painting while forming a metaphor for the chaos of contemporary life. The title, Escalade, has differing and complimentary functions in English and French. Continuing to paint, over a lengthening career, the medium poses more questions than answers. The title is a reference to my attempt to overcome these difficulties through the expansion of my painting language. The title also refers to the escalation of crises in the world at large. It is the larger picture in which I am a small person trying to make my way. In a concrete sense, the title also refers to a strategy I have taken in a number of these paintings. That is, to re-examine very small paintings and produce larger versions of them. This is to understand when something works, why it works. It is easier to commit to experimentation and innovation on a small scale. Enlarging the pieces forces me to make more blatant versions of my own ideas, and to change them when necessary. This experiment also worked occasionally in reverse, when I painted the centre panel of the Small Ragged Gloves Triptych after finishing the large one. Although I consider them to be landscapes, the paintings also function as portraits and still lives. There are elements from all three of these genres. Recognizing them is a matter of interpretation, and that interpretation rests on an ambiguity of scale. A vegetal form might represent a tree, a plant, a gesture in paint, or a small part of someone’s face. This preoccupation with shifting scale is parallel to the experience of life, in which the tasks of our daily lives may be relatively simple, but they cannot be disentangled from the larger picture of climate crisis, inequality, and disintegrating social structure. The paintings are not a direct social commentary, but they contain a contemplation of the period in which I paint. It is my hope that, when looking at the paintings, the viewer retains a sense of both scales, of our intimate lives against the macrocosm of our times.

Creator:

Judith Berry (1961, Canadian)

Creation Year:

2022

Dimensions:

Height: 42 in (106.68 cm)Width: 42 in (106.68 cm)

Medium:

Canvas,Oil

Movement & Style:

Abstract

Period:

2010-