Lucy Tarquinio
Untitled (chiaroscuro in green)
2023
Oil on canvas
92 x 112 cm.
In Tarquinio’s painting, the Phthalo green overlay intensely highlighted the lighter moments from below, and further darkened whatever forms were already dimmer on the value scale. There is no moment of clarity within the painting, yet the high contrast of the value scale and the density of the layers render a surface on which to focus the different elements, and at the same time to see them as a whole. This painting communicates through a process of hiding and revealing, which is comical or almost flirtatious. It feels as though it is playing “peek-a-boo” with the artist, and in doing so, beckoning the viewer to spend more time engaging with the surface.
