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Monday, March 23, 2009

Jenny Dubnau



Elisabeth Smiling, oil on canvas, 54 x 38

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7 comments:

  1. NathalieMarch 25, 2009 at 9:27 AM

    ahhhh jenny Dubnau, I met her recently, what an intelligent and warm person. I am dying to see her paintings in real

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  2. SpatulaMarch 25, 2009 at 10:23 AM

    I love what work by Jenny D I have seen so far. Something in me really responds to the hyper-realism and the softness, and the way she captures both the beauty and the silly vulnerability of the subject. She has a kinship with Breughel in terms of vision, and I feel kinship to the both of them.

    This one has excellent 'lookability'. That is a term I invented to describe how long and how often you can keep looking at a painting while discovering new things, and getting fed by it. Similar to replay-ability in computer games. This portrait... Oh, I would so love to see it live and look at the paint texture and see what difference it makes to be able to see it.

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  3. NathalieMarch 25, 2009 at 11:19 AM

    I like your term, and I think the length of lookability is definitely determined by the culture one has.
    It interests me what you say about Breughel, I'd love it if you could explain a bit more:D

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  4. SpatulaMarch 25, 2009 at 1:36 PM

    Well, Breughel has this way of looking... It's not about style, it's about how he saw the people he looked at, how he felt about them. They are touching, comical, ugly, beautiful, silly, strong and enduring all at the same time, so when you look at his paintings, you experience all those things at the same time, and you have a relationship with the people, they come to matter to you.

    I see the same quality here.

    I think culture matters but it doesn't *determine*. We are influenced by what's around us, but we are not programmed by it because we are not robots and have our own individual responses. I like to give the viewer credit rather than underestimate what they bring to a picture as an individual, not just a product of a certain time and place.

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  5. NathalieMarch 25, 2009 at 5:16 PM

    To me it seems that lookability depends on there being a resonance between the painting and the viewer. The painting could be about deep issues, but unless the viewer is attuned to those issues, the viewer's eye could slide right over the painting.

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  6. SpatulaMarch 25, 2009 at 9:03 PM

    Oh I see what you mean. There is always this interplay between what the artist puts into a piece and what the viewer brings into it, definitely. In Jenny's case, there is definitely a lot put in there for the viewer to feast on.

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  7. AliaenaMay 24, 2009 at 12:49 PM

    Great painting, the mouth is extraordinary. Very pleasing work.

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