DARLENE COLE - LOVE NOTES DECEMBER 4 - 18, 2021
/by Robert Steven - Portrait Gallery of Canada
Love Notes, the current exhibition of paintings by Darlene Cole on view at Bau-Xi Gallery until December 18, is masterful and mysterious, disarming and disorienting, and most of all it is both promising and poignant. Works that might seem simple from afar, or in photographs, upon close inspection dazzle the mind as technical achievements and overwhelm the spirit with suggested narratives of hope and beauty and love that nevertheless evoke the full spectrum of our emotions.
The apparent spontaneity and intensity of the application of the paint, which is attested to by rogue spatters of colour, rivulets of solvent flowing through thin paint, and the decisive, unwavering movement of the brush along its seemingly intuitive path is bewildering when it is considered in the light of the exquisite control of the clarity, colour, and consistency of the paint throughout the exhibition.
Disorienting is an insufficient word to describe the effect of this paradox on the viewer, the technique of these works is positively koanic. No matter where the eye searches, there is no colour but the colour, no mark other than the mark, no sign anywhere of any revision or hesitation. There are layers of paint, to be sure, but there is astonishingly little layering. The deep rich void behind a still life of peonies turns out to be a free floating field of a perfectly precise colour that somehow visually evokes the whole history of studio still life painting in the most strikingly efficient manner imaginable, paradoxically by using a direct lyrical abstract movement that echoes Frankenthaler as much as anything else.
The marks we might call the top layer, though many of these also stand freely alla prima, although full bodied and solid are still applied with a light, shimmering touch, the brushwork is overt and explicit and shows every sign of being rapid and intuitive, which makes the extraordinary precision and control of every stroke, each so precise in its colour and its consistency, all the more striking. The tension encoded in the work between the active and the contemplative painter is thrilling and suggests to me the mastery of both skill and spirit in Chinese ink brush calligraphy.
That Cole demonstrates such complete and subtle mastery of her medium and her technique is no surprise, 2021 is after all her twenty-second year with Bau-Xi Gallery, yet the effect and impact on the viewer of contemplating the seemingly impossible dynamics of the paint handling does not wane with extended looking, nor is the wonder at the artist’s ability diminished by any possible explanation of how it may have been developed and refined over time.
Despite the longstanding presence and appreciation of Cole’s work in Toronto, the artist herself remains enigmatic. Generally avoiding studio visits, she sends her work largely unaccompanied into the world to meet its viewer and allows the dialogue between them to proceed without further intervention or interpretation on her part. While this almost certainly creates the conditions for a special kind of non-verbal self-directed bonding between the viewer and the object, it demonstrates a degree of restraint, consistency, and commitment to her ideals that few creators could sustain, especially over so many years.
It is within this context that we turn to the final mystery of the works: the subjects depicted, the narratives represented, and the deeply felt though elusive and dynamic moods they evoke. The paintings are unwaveringly beautiful, and the title implies the role of love in the narrative, perhaps as a source and a purpose for that beauty. Yet there is, at least for me, an undeniable pathos hidden somewhere in the imagery. Is it in the swirling movement of the compositions that suggests the moment of the painting is fleeting, or that it is already past and fading into memory? Is it simply an authentic representation of the vulnerability to pain and loss that love requires us to accept? Perhaps both. But I believe that in this particular exhibition, the pain resides at the edge of the canvas, at the boundary between the resolute hope and strength and love within, and the fear and isolation of the world beyond. In this moment of unprecedented global crisis, I believe that these works are a manifesto – of faith in the future, faith in humanity, and faith in the role of art in life and society – that challenges us to look beyond the suffering around us. And although these works require us to confront that suffering, which is thrown into sharp relief by the brightness of their beauty, they are a manifesto that I accept and support without reservation.