ART Habens Art Review ART Habens Art Review - Special Issue #97 | Page 114

ART Habens
Hana Jaeger
dedicated home, but only ostensibly so. It
was a wounded home. Perhaps that's why I
deal more with the marginal and the weak,
contemplate the day-to-day people, those we
don't see, the transparent, and document the
moments that pass us by unnoticed, but I
bestow full splendor on them all. I bring them
from backstage to the front of the stage.
At the beginning of my career I painted an
abstract work which, on looking back, turned
out to be for me an excellent exercise in
composition, colorfulness, application of paint
and brush strokes, etc. I worked on bird's eye
or actual frontal views of brush stained
paintings and gradually I began to sharpen
the stain to something concretely figurative.
And the paintings flowed out as if they'd
been waiting for years to see the light of day,
to feel the fresh air, and with them the
subjects. Somewhat like Degas peeking at
dancers behind the scenes I peek at people
(mostly men) in everyday scenarios. The
subjects of the paintings are without pathos.
They're of a prosaic anti heroic stature.
They're of a kind that are sometimes not
worth a second look. But I see them as worth
painting and brought from behind the scenes
into the foreground. The paintings are low
key, at times exposed and other times
radiating acute feeling. With no cynicism or
overt criticism the paintings turn a spotlight
on them. The palette of colors is accordingly
of minor and major half tones. The people in
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