Three Paintings by Patch Somerville at The Front

AROUND 100 WORDS

(Above, Below Left, Below Right) Patch Somerville at the Front

The two larger, more figurative, more advantageously placed paintings broke the spell of the three smaller, more interesting ones. Of the small paintings, one suggested landscape, one still life, one, portraiture. They formed a trio about genre, subverting genre expectations at the same time. Nothing novel, but the voice was distinct and believable. These paintings were also about paint and painting as most good paintings are, to the faithful, anyway. There was no list of works, and the gallery attendant could not tell me if the paintings were titled or not. Bummer.

 

Art Books

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Vitamin P: New Perspectives in Painting

I stopped buying art books when I moved to New Orleans. Our apartment didn’t have central air. Mold and probably insects were consuming my collection. We, a family of three then four, didn’t have the resources to sustain this habit nor was I in the same mind-set. As a grad student or a young(ish) painter living in New York, I had been addicted to Phidon art book porn, the glossy, sexy, presentations that one could heavy-breathe over in some craigslist dump. They took these big messy things—paintings—and made them intimate, private, your connection to them felt real. You too would be a star.