Bart Exposito

Bart Exposito

After Mario's studio, my class hopped over to Bart Exposito's..
I liked this image because it reminded me of a shot of a Barnett Newman painting that also had a spectator observing from close range. Except here the spectator is mirrored by the figurative element rather than dwarfed by a sublime field of color. I was reading some writing in the Saatchi catalog about Bart's work enforcing ",the impersonal and anonymous as a comforting numbness." I disagree..I don't think there's anything impersonal or numb here..it has nothing to do with "lifestyle arbitration" but more to do with a thrilling objectness. The painting is experienced initially as 2 dimensional plane, but it forces it's way past that limitation and becomes fully realized as a material object...one in which color and form are personality traits contributing to the charismatic aura that it projects. These are beautiful and serene objects..and despite the obvious and easy reference to the 60's..I feel they are timeless and cannot be held within such a narrow interpretive field. They are contemporary exemplums of a long and esteemed tradition that stretches not only into a rich and fertile past, but into a hopeful and robust future where, yes, perhaps painting does "Triumph" after all.