Untitled 1.316 ,2012
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Notas : In 2016, Zander Blom was included in Vitamin P3: New Perspectives in Painting, an anthology of contemporary painting published by Phaidon. Blom’s inclusion, together with just more than 100 other outstanding international artists, not only spotlighted him, but cemented his position as part of a new generation that is taking this historic medium in new and unexpected directions.The material qualities of paint and the process of ‘making’ is central to Blom’s work. It is the physicality of his paintings that impacts their content and meaning. Untitled 1.316 is an impressive example of the artist’s demonstration of just what paint can do. Referencing the actions and techniques of Abstract Expressionism, Blom uses a palette knife to freely apply heavy daubs of oil paint on unprimed, raw linen canvas, which take on its own hue as the oil from the paint seeps through. He gives way to chance, allowing these oil halos their own formal space within the dynamic composition. This triple layering of material epitomizes Blom’s stylistic idiom; he creates surface tension as the paint pulls the linen, while the linen holds onto the paint and oil seeps into the canvas in a striking display that depicts their connection and separation at the same time.Here, Blom’s use of oil paint is evocative as he limits the colour range to black with small blots of white and primary blue - here and there - for visual effect. He refrains from a descriptive title for the work to defer subjective interpretation and meaning. Rather, this work stands as a testament to Blom’s artistic method and his process of investigation into the nature of oil paint. It is the materiality of this painting that elicits its true aesthetic value.Untitled 1.316 is a striking work – its vibrancy indicates the continuing cool allure of Blom’s painterly, expressionist abstraction.
Marelize van Zyl
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